


Challenge Our Hearts

by NightBronze



Series: Challenge Our Hearts [1]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Affection, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Background Poly, But Basically None, Canon Compliant, Challenge Accepted, Confessions, Falling In Love, Feelings Realization, Flirting, Fluff, Getting Together, Getting to Know Each Other, Haikyuu!! Manga Spoilers, Happy Ending, Hinata Shouyou is Sunshine, Idiots in Love, Implied Sexual Content, Kissing, Light Angst, Love Confessions, M/M, MSBY Black Jackals - Freeform, Making Out, Mutual Pining, Not Really Oblivious, Oblivious, Oblivious Miya Atsumu, POV Alternating, Pining, Polyamorous Character, Polyamory, Polyamory Negotiations, Pro Volleyball Player Bokuto Koutarou, Pro Volleyball Player Hinata Shouyou, Pro Volleyball Player Miya Atsumu, Pro Volleyball Player Sakusa Kiyoomi, Romantic Fluff, Teasing, Warm and Fuzzy Feelings, Who Can Win Hinata Shouyou?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-05
Updated: 2020-08-01
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:13:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 34,542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25052230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NightBronze/pseuds/NightBronze
Summary: “Of course,” Atsumu agreed, smirking in preparation. “That’s why, I challenge you both. To see who can win Shouyou-kun’s heart first.”“Challenge accepted!” Bokuto agreed instantly, never one to back down.“Fine,” Sakusa agreed also, taking Atsumu by surprise, but also giving him a thrill from knowing he had more competition.Atsumu was falling for Hinata Shouyou and had started to notice that his teammates, Bokuto and Sakusa, were falling for their newest member, too. So he challenged them to see who could make Hinata fall for them first. They accepted as he knew they would. But when he set up the challenge, he had only expected to win one heart, not three.
Relationships: Bokuto Koutarou & Hinata Shouyou & Miya Atsumu & Sakusa Kiyoomi, Bokuto Koutarou/Hinata Shouyou, Bokuto Koutarou/Hinata Shouyou/Miya Atsumu/Sakusa Kiyoomi, Bokuto Koutarou/Miya Atsumu, Bokuto Koutarou/Sakusa Kiyoomi, Hinata Shouyou/Miya Atsumu, Hinata Shouyou/Sakusa Kiyoomi, Minor or Background Relationship(s), Miya Atsumu/Sakusa Kiyoomi
Series: Challenge Our Hearts [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1851367
Comments: 114
Kudos: 518





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My first posted Haikyuu fic! I didn't think my first one would be for these four, but I'm not complaining.  
> I'm loving the latest arc in the manga and learning the new information for these characters as pros, so got inspired.
> 
> Hope you enjoy reading as much as I did writing ^^
> 
> **_(This fic contains manga spoilers)_**

Considering they had only played a practice match within their team, Hinata was jumping up and down like they’d won a world title. Atsumu wasn’t complaining though. He never got tired of seeing the sheer thrill and exhilaration that danced across Hinata’s animated face each time he came into contact with the ball. And that’s what Hinata was; a master of the ball. Usually, wherever the volleyball was, Hinata wasn’t far behind. Atsumu especially liked it when Hinata scored a point after Atsumu had set the ball to him because then it became _their_ point.

“Omi-san!” Hinata called out, holding his arm up with his hand waiting expectantly.

Sakusa, with a reluctant expression, slowly raised his hand to quickly tap it against Hinata’s, who wasn’t apparently aware of the meaning behind Sakusa’s expression, as he clasped Sakusa’s hand between both his own. Sakusa’s eyes went wide, though he didn’t retreat or tell Hinata to stop.

Atsumu tilted his head, gaze firmly assessing the interaction.

“You scored that last point so fast,” gushed Hinata, literally jumping up and down on the balls of his feet. How he still had energy left, Atsumu couldn’t fathom. “It came by, whoosh right past me. And then…” Hinata paused, spun his head around in a search, then ran to his chosen target. Bokuto.

“And Bokuto!” Hinata exclaimed, rushing over to Bokuto as if he had already been apart of the conversation.

Bokuto’s brows raised as he hung the towel he’d been wiping his face with around his broad shoulders.

“You’re straight caught the other side off guard after playing the middle so much,” he said in a rush, making Bokuto puff his wide chest even further out than it already was.“And then Miya-san did that quick-” again, he stopped mid-sentence.

Atsumu had to calm his excited heart at the prospect that Hinata was about to… yep. He was coming over, hand clasped around Bokuto’s wrist as he speed-walked to Atsumu and dragged a very willing Bokuto with him who was also smiling.

“Right, Miya-san?”

“Shouyou-kun, please,” Atsumu grinned to hide the flutter in his stomach.

“Sorry, sorry,” Hinata laughed, waving his free hand in front of his face. “Atsumu-san, your quick set to Bokuto where you jumped and it looked like you were going to pass to Tomas.”

“Ah,” Atsumu shrugged with a smirk. “I’m pretty amazing.”

Hinata nodded quickly. “You really are! Ah, Omi-san, wait!”

And Hinata was off again, running to catch up with the retreating Sakusa, who hesitated long enough for Hinata to reach him before he arrived at the door.

“Where are you going?” He asked him.

“Uh, to wash my hands,” Sakusa said while avoiding Hinata’s intense gaze.

“Ohh, did you touch something gross again?” Hinata asked, apparently not having realised the last thing Sakusa’s hands came into contact with was Hinata.

“Not… exactly,” Sakusa replied slowly.

 _Interesting_ , Atsumu thought. Sakusa didn’t actually appear to be fazed about having touched Hinata.

“Why are you staring at them so much?” Bokuto asked in a loud whisper, right by Atsumu’s ear, causing him to jump slightly. He hadn’t forgotten Bokuto was there, he had simply been more occupied. With Hinata.

“I wasn’t starin’.”

“Looking intently, then?” Bokuto tilted his head with a teasing grin. “Hinata is a whole energy in himself.”

Atsumu squinted at Bokuto, noticing his glance towards the door where Hinata and Sakusa had just gone through.

“You like him,” he said, not asking but stating.

Bokuto was undeterred and not embarrassed at all as he sighed dreamily and said, “I really do.”

“Well, I saw him first,” Atsumu said childishly, which really wasn’t the case.

“You did?” Bokuto asked in confusion, also knowing that Atsumu had indeed _not_ seen Hinata first.

Atsumu was feeling too petty to correct himself, so he strode away to the changing rooms.

Later in the evening, when Atsumu was home and lying in bed, he created a group chat. Titled with an orange emoji, he invited Sakusa and Bokuto into it.

 **Atsumu:** We need to talk…

He thought he would have to wait, but Bokuto’s reply came quickly.

 **Bokkun** : Okay! 😉

 **Atsumu:** Why are you winking?

 **Bokkun:** Oops, wrong one

 **Bokkun:**...

**Bokkun: 😆**

Atsumu sighed and ran his hand over his face. A group chat was not the way to go about this.

 **Bokkun:** So what do u need?

 **[** ** _Sakusa_ ** **has left the chat]**

This really wasn’t the best method. _At all._

 **[** ** _Sakusa_ ** **has been added to the chat]**

 **Atsumu:** Don’t leave again!

 **Atsumu:** I need to talk to you both tomorrow, before practice, before anyone else is there and be at least 15 minutes early

After seeing that they had both read the message, Atsumu locked his phone and went to sleep, not bothering to see if there was a reply.

Atsumu didn’t want to beat around the bush. So when Sakusa and Bokuto arrived in the changing rooms only _ten_ minutes early (which was very suspicious considering they’d both arrived together), he said what he wanted.

“Both of you need to back off from Shouyou-kun,” he said slowly with a firm gaze.

Sakusa frowned and looked to Bokuto, who shrugged cluelessly in return.

“What are you talking about?” Sakusa asked, not looking as uncomfortable about being there as Atsumu thought he would have been.

“I like Shouyou-kun,” Atsumu answered. “And I know you two like him, too.”

“This is why you wanted us to get here early?”

Atsumu folded his arms across his chest and stood tall. “I won’t let you have him.”

Bokuto half smiled and put his hands on his hips, raising his head to full height even though he was already taller than Atsumu. “I didn’t realise my disciple was something for you to claim.”

Sakusa stuffed his hands further into his pockets. “Shouldn’t it be up to him who he wants to be with?”

“Of course,” Atsumu agreed, smirking in preparation. “That’s why I challenge you both. To see who can win Shouyou-kun’s heart first.”

“Challenge accepted!” Bokuto agreed instantly, never one to back down.

“Fine,” Sakusa agreed also, taking Atsumu by surprise, but also giving him a thrill from knowing he had more competition.

“That’s settled then-” Atsumu started saying, but the locker room door banged open, revealing a fast breathing Hinata with a rosy nose and dishevelled orange hair. He looked very cute.

“You’re here early!” Hinata said to them all with a bright smile. “It’s been a while since I wasn’t first to arrive.”

“Didn’t coach tell you about not overexerting yourself? You shouldn't push your body too hard,” Sakusa said, his slightly softer tone sending a shiver down Atsumu’s spine. He hadn't heard Sakusa speak like that before. Had he started already?

Hinata gave a sheepish smile as he took off his coat.

“Don’t worry,” Bokuto said, wrapping his arm over Hinata’s shoulders. “Hinata used to cycle over a mountain to get to school. This is no sweat!”

Hinata laughed with Bokuto, his eyes crinkling with joy. “I did! And there was also that time when I had to cycle to and from Shiratorizawa for a training camp.”

“The one you weren’t invited to?” Bokuto smirked as he poked at Hinata’s waist teasingly.

They continued to laugh and talk about previous memories they’d shared to each other, reminding Atsumu that Bokuto had known Hinata and been friends with him for much longer. 

Atsumu would have to up his game before he’d even started.

“How about this one?” Hinata asked, pointing at the trainers with neon turquoise soles.

Atsumu scrunched his nose up, swiping his phone screen away from those shoes to reveal the next.

“Or those!” Hinata exclaimed again, going wide-eyed at the orange and black design.

“Shouyou-kun,” Atsumu said slowly. “You have awful taste in shoes.”

Hinata sucked in a huge breath, his chest rising as he gaped in horror at Atsumu. “Just because I like the colourful ones and not boring and plain black and white.” He turned his head away with a pout, making Astumu grin widely.

He poked at Hinata’s bulging cheek and jeered, “poor Shouyou-kun. I’ll still let you pick if they aren’t hideous and bright.”

A battle raged over Hinata’s expression as he glanced at Atsumu, to the phone and back again. “And?”

Atsumu’s smile spread wider and he stuck out his tongue playfully. “And I’ll wear them every day, just for you.”

“Pfft,” laughed Hinata, unable to maintain his grumpy pout.

Atsumu already knew Hinata was playing with him, that’s why he enjoyed riling him up so much.

“You can’t wear them every day,” he insisted, though his cheeks were practically glowing. Seeing Hinata’s happy and energetic smile like this, his presence alone, was enough to make him fall even faster. Hinata Shouyou was an easy person to like and get along with, easy to be attracted to, both emotionally and literally. Eyes drew to him naturally on and off the court, with his big energy and bold moves.

“I would if I knew you liked them, too.”

“How about me?” Came Bokuto’s loud voice as his arms flopped over Atsumu and Hinata’s shoulders and his head popped between them.

Atsumu had known the bubble around him and Hinata wouldn’t last long. But somehow, he couldn’t find it in his heart to be mad at Bokuto. Especially when he made Hinata’s expression light up like that.

“We’re looking at shoes for Miy-um, Astumu-san.”

Resting his chin on his palm, Atsumu decided to humour them both. “What d'you think, Bokkun?”

Bokuto’s brows raised at Astumu’s use of his name, as they always did and gave a wink. Even though Atsumu wasn’t sure why Bokuto was winking, the expression didn’t look bad on him. In a playful and sexy kind of way. Not that Bokuto was sexy. Nope. Atsumu was _not_ about to go down that road.

“How about those with the blue sole?” Bokuto asked genuinely, taking a seat on the other side of Hinata. It was bad enough with Hinata having bad taste, was Bokuto the same?

“How ‘bout,” Atsumu started, scrolling well away from the bright colours and landing on some stylish white trainers with slightly platformed bubble soles and gold on flecks on the bottom like small paint splatters.

“I dunno,” Bokuto said unsurely, tilting his head to the side at the same time as Hinata. “Looks like they got ruined by some paint.”

“Yeah,” agreed Atsumu. “But it’s intentional. Like art.”

Hinata shook his head and grinned. “Atsumu-san, do you have bad taste in art?”

A snort of laughter came from a few meters away, leading to Sakusa who was sitting at a table with Tomas and Inunaki.

“Somethin’ to say, Omi-Omi?” Atsumu asked with a raised brow.

Sakusa didn’t bat an eyelid as he shook his head and returned back to whatever conversation he’d been having. As much as Atsumu wanted to demand his attention be on him and giving the question an answer, having one less challenger with Hinata was more preferable.

When he turned back, Hinata and Bokuto were wearing matching smirks, holding back their laughter terribly. With a small sigh, Atsumu gave a half and taunting smile, urging the two to laugh properly and see what would happen. They wouldn’t be receiving nearly as many sets as usual, that was for sure.

“Why do you need-” Bokuto started asking as he attempted to restrain his laughter, and failed. “New trainers anyway? It’s not like-” another laugh, “you can wear them for volleyball.”

Atsumu stretched and rested his hands behind his head. “Do I need a reason? They look almost as good as me, so of course I should wear 'em.”

“Um-hm,” nodded Hinata. “ _Almost_ as good as you Atsumu-san.”

Atsumu waited for the following laugh, for the joke to be continued, except it didn’t. Hinata’s kind expression held no humour as he gazed at Atsumu. Was Hinata saying what Atsumu thought he was? Did he think Atsumu was good looking? Or perhaps, he was merely agreeing with Atsumu so as not to bring his ego down.

“Going to have to disagree on this one,” interjected Bokuto, snapping Atsumu’s attention from Hinata. And here was the joke, of course, Bokuto would be the one to deliver. “Those shoes? They can’t even be _considered_ your competition. This gold,” he reached over and flicked at Atsumu’s loose strands of hair, “is way prettier than paint splatters trying to be art.”

Atsumu’s jaw bobbed up and down as he tried to respond to Bokuto. That was a compliment, he was sure. A compliment of his hair? Atsumu hadn’t been aware Bokuto was interested in hairstyles or knew what was considered, as he put it, _pretty_.

Before Atsumu’s cheeks had time to catch up with the conversation and start to blush, Bokuto’s intense eyes were drawn away, along with everyone else, to leave for the court. Lunch break was over and so was the conversation. _Thankfully_ , Atsumu thought, unconsciously running his hand through his hair. 

Bokuto was supposed to be complimenting Hinata, not him.

**//**

Gaming at Kozume’s had become a monthly thing for Koutarou, usually accompanied by Kuroo and Akaashi - though Akaashi couldn’t always make it because he was busy with his job, and Koutarou sometimes had a match, so needed to rest. And now Hinata was back from Rio, he was a part of that, too.

Koutarou had stayed in touch with Hinata over the years, though not as much as he would have liked. Being a pro volleyball player took up a lot of hours, and time differences got in the way a lot. Now that Hinata was back, Koutarou enjoyed being with him, on and off the court.

Akaashi wasn’t there tonight, much to Koutarou’s dismay, but they were still having fun. Kozume always had the latest games, either because he’d been sent them for free, or wanted to stay on top of the latest releases. Koutarou wasn’t a gamer like Kozume, but he always tried his best in their small battles against each other.

“The food should be here in thirty,” said Kuroo, leaning his head on Kozume’s shoulder, only to immediately be shrugged off. That didn’t deter Kuroo, though, as he shifted to lean his full weight on Kozume and landed on his lap. Kozume rolled his eyes and smothered a cushion over Kuroo’s face.

“Guys,” Hinata tried to scold them as he rolled the dice. The board game was Hinata’s idea, as he had explained he thought it would give him an advantage against Kozume. He was wrong. Kozume was way ahead of all of them and Koutarou still hadn’t figured out the rules.

“My turn?” Koutarou asked hopefully.

Hinata stuck his tongue out in concentration. “Just a sec’.”

Koutarou was fine with watching Hinata think while he waited. He found all of Hinata’s many concentration and confused expressions more entertaining than the actual game, which was too tricky for Koutarou to want to pay attention to. Hinata was much more interesting.

Which gave Koutarou an idea as he sneakily tilted his phone up and took a picture of Hinata’s insanely cute tongue-poked-out face. Kuroo noticed, of course, nothing ever got past him, but Koutarou shrugged him off with a wink.

He sent the picture to the orange group chat that Miya had made, along with multiple heart eyes emoji’s, just to piss him off. Miya was so oblivious most of the time that Koutarou loved to tease him and carelessly flirt to make him flustered and confused. Koutarou hadn’t lied when he said he liked Hinata like Miya was asking, but he also liked Sakusa who had been walking with Hinata at the time, _and_ Miya as well. 

Koutarou had so much love to give, that he couldn’t narrow down a single person to receive it. He also had a tendency to fall too fast, but he had no issue with it, as long as he didn’t reveal those feelings and scare anyone off, where was the harm?

His phone buzzed multiple times, and when Koutarou opened the chat, he couldn’t suppress his wide smile.

 **Miya Atsumu:** How!

 **Miya Atsumu** Stop

 **Miya Atsumu:** Don’t stop

 **Miya Atsumu:** Send another

 **Miya Atsumu:** Actually, where are you? I want in! Now!

 **Bokuto Koutarou:** Hehe, we’re at Kozume’s for game night 😜

 **Miya Atsumu:** Invite me 😤

 **Sakusa Kiyoomi:** Why would he? Scared that Bokuto will win your challenge?

 **Miya Atsumu:** …

 **[** **_Miya Atsumu Calling_ ** **]**

Koutarou almost dropped his phone from the sudden continuous vibrations.

“Sorry, gotta take this,” he apologised to the others, bowing his head and quickly jogging to the kitchen.

“Tsum-Tsum!” He greeted Miya, his stomach already squirming in excitement.

“Ask Kozume if I can come over,” Miya demanded, not even surprising Koutarou.

“Hmm,” Koutarou pretended to think about it. “Why should I? Like Omi-kun said-”

“ _No_ ,” Miya interrupted, though he didn’t sound mad, more rushed. “It will be more fun if I’m there.”

Koutarou hummed, unable to deny that he didn’t also want Miya to be with them. Kozume wouldn’t mind, Hinata definitely wouldn’t mind, however, he wasn’t sure about Kuroo.

“I’ll see what I can do,” Koutarou said, pretending to sound exasperated and unsure.

“You’re shit at actin’, Bokkun,” Miya jeered, the grin clear in his tone.

Koutarou laughed brightly, unable to stop the happiness he felt from hearing Miya say his name. It gave him butterflies every time and he didn’t ever want to stop hearing it.

“I’ll text you what Kenma says.”

Miya hummed and said, “sure, sure.”

With a skip in his step, Koutarou returned to the huge living room and plonked himself down next to Kozume.

“Hey, Kenma?” He asked and fluttered his lashes, not that it would make a difference.

“No,” Kuroo answered instead and stretched his arm across Kozume’s chest in some kind of block.

“Yes,” Kozume said, not even waiting for Koutarou to continue.

“Ha,” Koutarou stuck his tongue out at Kuroo who faked a sob and wiped an invisible tear from his eye. “I was wondering... if one of our teammates could join us?” Koutarou asked anyway, knowing that Kozume had been teasing Kuroo.

“Oh!” Hinata gasped excitedly. “Who? Which one?”

“Miya?”

With a gasp and slight blush to his cheeks, Hinata nodded quickly and grinned at Kozume with pleading eyes.

“Sure,” Kozume nodded. “He has to chip in for the food though. And join in with the games.”

“He won’t mind that,” smiled Koutarou, sending a quick thumbs up text to Miya followed by his location, because he didn’t know Kozume’s address in words.

Koutarou finally took his turn on the board, and just when he thought he’d overtaken Kozume and trapped his player, Kozume whipped out a counter card that sent Koutarou back to square one. _Literally_.

“ _Argh_ ,” he groaned and collapsed back onto the pile of cushions. “If Keiji was here, he’d tell me what move to make.”

Hinata joined him, his face propped up on his hands. “If Akaashi was here, he would only help you and himself, and then I would have even less chance of making it to the end.”

Koutarou rolled over until his face was directly below Hinata’s, mere centimetres away as he felt Hinata’s breath catch. “We should team up,” he whispered loudly. “Take on these noobs and show them how a real gamer succeeds.”

Of course, Koutarou was pretty much talking out of his arse at this point. _He_ was the noob here and Kozume and Kuroo knew it.

“You can’t be a noob at board games, Kou,” laughed Kuroo, proving Koutarou’s thoughts.

“Shh, shh,” Koutarou hushed him and held up his palm in dismissal, his eyes never breaking contact from Hinata’s.

With a hum of approval, Hinata nodded and clenched his fist. “Let’s do this.”

Koutarou booped Hinata’s nose with his finger, just because he could, and jumped up, prepared to keep going to the end.

Hinata flailed, his hands coming to his face and covering his nose and rosy cheeks, but not his bright sunshine smile.

Kuroo coughed forcefully, catching Koutarou’s attention, and raised one of his brows, his eyes darting back and too and Hinata. Koutarou waved him off and sat up so he could pay attention to what was happening on the board. He could feel Hinata’s gaze sliding over him every few seconds though decided not to give Hinata away and allowed him to keep searching for whatever it was that he found so suddenly interesting about Koutarou’s head.

As Koutarou was planning his next move in his head, brows furrowed in concentration, Kuroo slammed his piece down on the finishing square.

“I win,” he grinned smugly, the corner of his mouth turned up as he folded his arms across his wide chest.

“Wha…” Koutarou trailed off, glaring at the board like he could demand answers from it.

“Ohh,” Hinata clapped in awe, as he clearly had no idea how Kuroo managed to win either.

Kozume gave a small smile and allowed Kuroo to lean his head on Kozume’s shoulder, his fingers naturally coming up to run through Kuroo’s black hair.

Koutarou, struck with an idea, slowly turned his face towards Hinata, his puppy eyes already in place. “Hinataaa,” he whined, pouting sadly at his loss and hoping Hinata knew what Koutarou wanted.

“Hm?” Hinata raised his brows, anticipation clear in his sparkling caramel eyes.

Taking a leap of faith, Koutarou wriggled over and slumped his forehead on Hinata’s shoulder, releasing his full weight (well, most of it at least), and causing them both to topple.

“Bokuto!” Hinata wailed, mostly laughing, as they crashed down. “Give me some warning!” 

As Hinata made numerous attempts to push Koutarou off, Koutarou only proceeded to become a floppy dead weight. Releasing a groan of defeat, Hinata patted Koutarou’s head where it now lay on his chest. Hinata had really filled out over the years and Koutarou’s brain was somehow still trying to catch up with how broad and muscular Hinata had become.

“I’m not a pillow you know,” Hinata tried again, pushing Koutarou’s head up with both hands so their eyes met.

And Koutarou couldn’t help himself, just had to smile at his own ridiculousness, how easy it was to be this way with Hinata without the fear of Hinata finding him annoying or needy.

“Keep patting my head,” he sighed, nuzzling his nose against Hinata’s palm.

An odd choked squeak came from Hinata’s throat as his whole face flooded pink, his hands quickly covering up Koutarou’s face. Koutarou considered if it would be too weird to blow a raspberry on Hinata’s hands, but took too long thinking about it, as the doorbell rang and Hinata jumped up. Koutarou rolled to the side as Hinata stumbled away, heading for the front door.

“Kou?” Kuroo asked, amusement set in his smirk.

Koutarou may have forgotten about Kuroo and Kozume a little, tiny bit.

“Huh? You say something?” Koutarou teased, pretending he didn’t hear.

“Mhm, and that’s Kenma and Kuroo,” Hinata said as he guided Miya in by the… _hand_? Huh, how did Miya manage that one? Though from where Koutarou was looking, it appeared that Hinata was the one who had taken the lead.

“Excuse me,” Miya said as he bowed his head in greeting. “Nice to meet you. Thank you for allowin’ me to join.”

“Pfft,” Kuroo snorted. “What’s with the formalities?”

“Hey,” Koutarou scolded Kuroo. “He’s a nice guy that’s why. And you haven’t properly met before, anyway.”

“Nice guy,” Kuroo mused, deliberately slow. Koutarou wasn’t sure what was pissing Kuroo off.

“Come sit,” Koutarou said to Miya, holding his hand out and patting the cushion next to him with the other.

Hinata nodded to Miya as he sat in his seat, Miya now securely between him and Koutarou.

Hoping to ease the tension that Kuroo had made, Koutarou put a hand on Miya’s shoulder and leant into him, saying, “y’know, Tetsurou was captain in high school like me. And Kenma was a setter, but he doesn’t play anymore, and Keiji, too! But Keiji’s not here right now. Otherwise I’d be winning.”

Miya hummed, his ear turning pink from Koutarou’s proximity. “I do recognise you a small bit. What school was it?”

“Nekoma,” Kuroo said, his face unreadable.

“Atsumu-san,” Hinata said eagerly. “If we didn’t win against you that time in first year, your second, then you could have played Nekoma.”

“S’that so?” Miya mused, a small grin sneaking its way across his lips.

“I’m glad we didn’t,” Kozume yawned, tucking his chin over his curled up knees. “I liked playing Shouyou, but I wasn’t sad that we didn’t win.”

Miya didn’t appear to know what to say to that, so Koutarou leant over the table towards Kozume and said, “did you like playing against me, too?”

Kozume scrunched up his nose and thought. “Like isn’t the word I’d use,” he said, hiding his smile when Koutarou slumped. “I do like _watching_ you play, though.”

“Yeah?” Koutarou perked up again and grinned.

“Are you kidding?” Chuckled Kuroo, attempting to ruffle Kozume’s hair. “He streams every match he can’t get to. Still insane at reading the court.”

“Oh, he is!” Agreed Hinata with a flurry of nods.

Kozume turned his face against Kuroo’s arm and mumbled, “can we start another game now?”

“Yes!” Koutarou cheered. “Can I pick? Do you want a drink? Wait, can we eat now?”

Kuroo chuckled and shook his head while Hinata laughed with him. “Did your stomach protest, dear Koutarou?”

“I can’t help that I’m hungry,” pouted Koutarou.

“You’re always hungry,” commented Miya, turning to smirk at Koutarou, earning a snort from Kuroo.

Hinata peered over Miya’s shoulder and giggled, actually _giggled_. Koutarou needed that sound embedded into his brain. Miya must have thought so too, as he turned his head and immediately blushed from Hinata’s face being closer than expected.

“I’ll pick the teams!” Announced Hinata, waving the switch remotes around as Kozume loaded up the game. Nothing hit the spot like some good old Mario cart after eating their fill.

“Do we need teams?” Miya asked, running his fingers through his pretty hair and making Koutarou smile from the sight. He caught Miya’s eye, who looked confused as to why Koutarou was smiling, but Koutarou didn’t miss the tips of Mya’s ears turning red.

“We don’t have even numbers,” Kuroo said as he patted his stomach. The food had been _really_ good, even if Koutarou hadn't been the one to cook it.

“Okay, no teams,” mused Hinata. “But we can’t all play at once, so they’ll have to be rounds.”

“Does he know a lot about gamin’?” Miya whispered to Koutarou, sending a shiver running down Koutarou’s spin, to the tips of his toes. He liked that a lot.

“Not that I know of,” Koutarou whispered back. “It’s cute though. Seeing him take the lead.”

Miya hummed with a nod. “You’ve got that right.”

“You having fun?” Koutarou asked a little quieter, enjoying having Miya’s attention for a moment, even if his eyes were glued to Hinata.

“Yup, super fun.” Miya flashed a grin and wiggled his brows, making Koutarou laugh whilst taking a drink, causing him to choke. _How attractive_.

“Bokuto!” Hinata exclaimed while Koutarou continued to cough with Miya’s hand patronisingly patting his back most unhelpfully.

“I’m good,” he croaked, giving Hinata a thumbs up and a weak smile.

“So _cute_ ,” Miya jeered, clearly trying to tease Koutarou but only making him smile wider from the attention. Miya rolled his eyes, his hand pausing a moment longer on Koutarou’s back before pulling away.

“You two can team up,” Hinata said to them, eyes eager and playful. “And I’ll play a three-way match with Kuroo and Kenma.”

“Sure,” shrugged Koutarou, not really minding who he was with, as long as he won. “I’ll beat you all this time!” He declared, just to be sure they all knew.

“We’ll see ‘bout that,” Miya, smirked and dipped his head, his eyes heavy with a challenge that Koutarou eagerly soaked up.

“Is this going to be a bloodbath?” Kuroo asked, his brows mostly furrowed as he watched their exchange.

Koutarou laughed but didn’t comment either way.

He sat in front of the huge screen that Kozume called a T.V, legs crossed and knee bumping with Miya’s. With his controller in hand, Koutarou watched the numbers count down and waited for the familiar _ding_ , before revving forward.

He only beat Miya by a hair, but he won and was proud of that. Miya didn’t try to make an excuse, simply shrugged and accepted Koutarou’s high five for a good race.

As they sat back and watched the other three compete, Koutarou felt a pang in his chest, like something was missing or not quite right. Was it because Akaashi wasn’t there? But he hadn’t felt this way earlier before Miya had arrived. Or was that it? That Miya was here, with Koutarou and Hinata and… and no Sakusa. Koutarou missed Sakusa. Their small group of four that they often spent time in wasn’t complete. The puzzle left gaping with a stray part wandering around alone. Well, maybe that was a little dramatic. Sakusa was probably at home.

Koutarou pulled his phone out and angled the front camera towards himself. He made a peace sign and tilted his head into Miya’s space, waiting for him to pick up on what Koutarou was doing. Miya humoured him, also made a peace sign and rested his elbow on Koutarou’s shoulder. Koutarou was practically beaming when he pressed the capture button.

He quickly skimmed over the picture and sent it to Sakusa, typing out, ‘ _miss you'_ , underneath.

“Why are you sayin’ that?” Miya whisper-shouted once he saw.

“Uh, because I miss him?”

Miya appeared dumbfounded. “You what?”

“I miss Omi-kun,” Koutarou said again, hoping he didn’t sound whiny. “It’s not the same without him being with us. Don’t you think?”

Miya opened his mouth to respond, only to stop and close his mouth. He thought for a moment, his eyes casting other to Hinata laughing with Kozume and Kuroo as a blue shell knocked Kuroo from the lead.

With a sigh, Miya ran his hand through his hair. “Maybe a little bit.”

Before Sakusa could reply, Koutarou snapped another picture of the game taking place in front, with Hinata’s beaming smile highlighting the shot.

He sent that, too, captioned, '☀️☀️☀️'

Then Sakusa replied:

 **Sakusa Kiyoomi:** Having fun?

 **Bokuto Koutarou:** Yes! Wish you were here too 😢

**Sakusa Kiyoomi: 😳**

“Did he just…” Miya trailed off and Koutarou laughed, patting his shoulder.

 **Bokuto Koutarou:** 👉👈

 **Sakusa Kiyoomi:** [image of Sakusa lying down, a hand half in his hair, a blank expression, with a white cat curled up on his chest]

 **Bokuto Koutarou:** Cute, cute! I miss Yuki toooo

“Shit,” cursed Miya, his face invading Koutarou’s space to see at his phone screen. “Do you two always talk like this?”

“Hm?” Koutarou raised his brows in surprise. “Yes? He sends me pictures of his cat all the time. Sometimes he’s in them, too.”

“You talk a lot?”

“Yeah,” Koutarou nodded. “Does that surprise you?”

Miya twisted his lip in thought. “I just didn’t realise.”

“Pretty, right?”

“Wha-uh... w-what?”

“The cat,” Kotarou said, trying to play it cool that he totally wasn’t talking about Sakusa. Which he was.

“The cat…” Miya said slowly. “Right. Yeah. Very pretty.”

His cheeks had blushed and Koutarou was struck with a thought he hadn’t considered before. His eyes wandered to Hinata, then back to Miya who had a battle raging over his face as he peeked up at Koutarou, their gaze meeting briefly and knocking the breath from Koutarou’s chest.

Maybe he wasn’t the only one with a lot of love to give.

**//**

Kiyoomi sat in the corner of the gym, earbuds in place as he stretched out his limbs. He focussed on his movements, running through them routinely as the light beats played in his ears.

As much as he enjoyed playing as a team, sometimes he liked to sit back and spend a moment to himself. Stretching was a good way to do that, as a lot of others did too, and they knew when he had his headphones in that he didn’t want to be disturbed. Which had worked fine up until Hinata Shouyou had joined the team.

Kiyoomi had recognised him immediately, having seen him play with Kageyama Tobio during high school. He hadn’t thought much of him back then, but now? Now Kiyoomi thought _a lot_ about him. There was something magnetic about Hinata that drew everyone in, made him the sole focus, to attract others attention, to rule the court as he saw fit. And just when you thought he’d blended into the background, he came soaring out again, claiming a point or shocking everyone with his multiple skills.

When Bokuto began speaking of Hinata, praising him and making Kiyoomi see Hinata even more, Kiyoomi started finding it hard to look away. Bokuto was a presence on his own, when matched with Hinata even more so, and with Miya on top of that… it was enough to give Kiyoomi a headache.

He had thought, when he first met Bokuto, _properly_ met Bokuto, that they wouldn’t get on. But he was proven wrong that one time when Kiyoomi had needed to have a moment alone, and Bokuto had found him. Had seen how the pressure had been too much for a moment and he needed to breathe. Slowly, in and out. 

Had Bokuto been about to talk his ear off when that was the last thing he wanted? No. He hadn’t. Bokuto surprised him and listened intently, spoke softly to Kiyoomi of how great he was and that it was okay for his emotions to waver. That the rest of the team were there too and he didn’t need to take on such a burden.

And Kiyoomi had needed that. Had needed those gently spoken words and that kind smile to welcome him in, reassure and comfort him. So Kiyoomi talked. It felt like hours with his loosely strung together sentences, but had been mere minutes. Kiyoomi had needed those minutes and Bokuto had given them to him.

After that, he found Bokuto drawing closer to him; careful smiles across the court, a silly wink or toss of a ball. Then suddenly, before Kiyoomi had stopped to think about it, they were friends. _Close_ friends.

“Omi-san,” Hinata sang, crouching down beside Kiyoomi as he stretched out his back. “Will you show me how to do that stretch with the leggy thing?”

Kiyoomi refrained from laughing at Hinata’s word choice, stopped himself from smiling fondly as his bright and hopeful expression. Kiyoomi didn’t know why Hinata was asking. Not when they both knew Kiyoomi would say yes anyway.

So he showed Hinata the ‘ _leggy thing_ ’, stopped his music to do so, and felt impressed when Hinata picked up on the movements so quickly.

“That felt good,” Hinata cheered when he stood, stretching his arms in the air so his shirt rode up and his abs peeked out. 

Kiyoomi looked away and cleared his throat, sliding his face mask back over his nose. “Was that all?”

“Nope!” Hinata grinned because they both knew Hinata wanted something else. “How’s your cat?”

Kiyoomi frowned. “My cat?”

Hinata shrugged. “Bokuto showed me a picture of your cat playing with a string. It was so _sweet_ and _fluffy_ and please, please, please-”

“What do you want, Hinata?” Kiyoomi asked, folding his arms across his chest and trying not to focus on the fact that Bokuto was showing off pictures that Kiyoomi had sent him. He supposed he didn’t mind if it was only Hinata. But still.

“Can I meet your cat?” Hinata fluttered his eyelashes, pressed his hands together and looked as if he was trying to look… Kiyoomi wasn’t exactly sure what expression Hinata was going for.

“Sure,” Kiyoomi sighed. Partly because he didn’t mind Hinata meeting his cat and also because he would get one up on Miya from having Hinata come over to his home. Serves him right for inviting himself over to Hinata and Bokuto’s game night with their friends.

“Yes!” Hinata cheered, literally jumping into the air and coming face-to-face with Kiyoomi while he was up there. Kiyoomi felt the air rush around him as time stopped for a second, the only thing in his sight being Hinata’s wide eyes, rosy cheeks and excited smile.

“You havin’ a starin’ contest or what?” Miya asked with a confused but mostly suspicious expression.

Kiyoomi stepped back, averting his gaze from Hinata’s as he began to walk away. Should he humour Miya with an answer, or ignore his blatant interruption of Kiyoomi being alone with Hinata?

“Omi-san has mesmerising eyes, don’t you think?” Hinata said to Miya as a way of answering. 

Miya spluttered, his ears turning red as he crossed his arms over his chest. “S’pose,” he mumbled between a pout, catching Kiyoomi by surprise as he paused and properly looked at Miya. “So what’s all this secret talk?” He asked, looking as if he wanted to quickly change the topic now Kiyoomi’s attention had been re-captured.

“Oh,” said Hinata with a casual shrug. “I was asking if I could meet Omi-san's cat.”

Miya frowned, appearing unsurprised as he tilted his head towards Kiyoomi. Before Miya could ask exactly what Kiyoomi knew he would, Kiyoomi properly walked away, creating long steps between them.

Hurried footsteps caught up with him, but instead of Miya as he expected, Bokuto appeared beside Kiyoomi instead.

“Did you say yes?” Bokuto asked, folding his arms behind his head as he carelessly walked backwards.

“You sent Hinata to me?”

Bokuto winked. “Maybe. So, are you letting him?”

“Meet my cat?” Sakusa shoved his hands in his pockets. “Hm.”

“And what does Miya think?” Bokuto was grinning now like he had something much bigger planned than Hinata meeting Kiyoomi’s cat.

“I don’t know, I left before Hinata said anything.”

“Ohoho,” jeered Bokuto, now wiggling his eyebrows as he attempted to get closer into Kiyoomi’s space, only for Kiyoomi to step further away. “Guess he knows now.”

“What?”

“Omi-kun!” Yelled Miya, jogging over to them across the court, Hinata in toe looking sheepishly excited.

“Hm?” Kiyoomi tilted his head, burying his hands further into his pockets.

“You invited Shouyou-kun over and not me?” He asked in disbelief as if he and Hinata were a package deal.

Kiyoomi sighed. “Hinata was the one who asked, not you.”

“Well I’m asking now,” Miya exclaimed, arms opened wide and waiting as his expression changed from desperate to… hoping. Did he really want to come to Kiyoomi’s home, or was he only requesting an invite because of Hinata? 

Kiyoomi could easily turn him down, could take this as a chance to get ahead in Miya’s challenge. But something inside his mind didn’t want to leave him out and somehow knew exactly how saying yes would pan out.

So Kiyoomi turned to Bokuto, already knowing how he would answer. “And you?”

Bokuto nodded with a soft smile, his wide eyes dashing over Hinata, Miya and back to Kiyoomi as they did more often recently.

“You better shower first,” Kiyoomi said to them all, trying not to scrunch up his nose as he finally made it out of the court and towards the locker room.

“Put your shoes there,” Bokuto instructed Hinata and Miya as Kiyoomi hung his coat up in the closet. “And hang your coats on these racks.”

“You come here often, Bokkun?” Grinned Miya, attempting to tease.

Bokuto nodded with an eager smile, which didn’t appear to be the answer Miya had expected.

“The cat?” Hinata asked, rubbing his hands together in anticipation as his eyes darted around the hall.

“She’ll be in the living room,” Kiymooi said, making sure all their shoes and coats were stored properly before leading them in. “Don't touch anything you don't need to. Drinks?”

“Please!” Bokuto called out as he joined Hinata in searching, showing him the spots where Kiyoomi’s cat enjoyed vacating.

“It’s so bright in here,” Miya mused as he followed Kiyoomi over to the kitchen, separated from the living space only by the small dining table.

“The balcony doors bring in a lot of light,” Kiyoomi said, flicking on the kettle for himself and getting juice from the fridge for Bokuto. “Tea?” Kiyoomi asked Miya.

“Please,” Miya smiled and leant back against the counter, watching as Hinata and Bokuto played with the now found cat beside the sofa. “A white cat.”

“Yuki,” Kiyoomi said as he made the drinks.

“So cute!” Laughed Hinata loudly as Yuki rolled onto her back and pawed at the toy Hinata was dangling over her.

Kiyoomi couldn’t help but smile.

“Maybe I should get a cat, too,” Miya said dreamily as he also watched Hinata.

Kiyoomi refrained from rolling his eyes. “Bokuto told Hinata I have a cat.”

“Hm.”

Miya accepted the tea and held the warm mug between his hands as steam rose up to his face.

“So,” Miya started slowly, his eyes flicking up to Kiyoomi and back down to his drink. “How often _does_ Bokkun come here?”

Kiyoomi smiled, wondering why that would interest Miya. “It depends on our schedules, how tired or busy we are.”

“It’s been happenin’ for a while?”

“Around half a year. Give or take.”

“I didn’t realise you were so close,” Miya commented with an awkward laugh.

“He mainly comes for Yuki,” Kiyoomi said, hoping… hoping for what exactly? That Miya wouldn’t look so sad? Because that was how he appeared to be. Or what he was trying to hide with laughter that didn’t quite reach his eyes.

“Why don’t you just ask him?” Miya asked, inclining his head over to what Kiyoomi presumed was Hinata’s direction. “Why’d you agree to my challenge?”

Kiyoomi didn’t have any real reason, so he answered, “why not? If Hinata can be happy with any of us, does it matter who?”

“Well, yeah, but…” Miya blew on his tea and took a tentative sip. “Don’t you want it to be you?”

It was true that Kiyoomi wanted to care for Hinata, make him smile the bright way he did and to be there for him. But if Hinata wasn’t inclined to him romantically, Kiyoomi was fine with that, too. As long as Hinata could keep on being the bouncing ray of sunshine he was, Kiyoomi wouldn’t mind if Hinata would rather be with Miya or Bokuto.

He didn’t flirt as extremely as they did as he prefered more subtleties in small gestures and words, and also wasn’t as confident in affection as they were - that was, without knowing if his feelings were reciprocated. Or bold, as Bokuto was. But that didn’t mean he didn’t like Hinata in the same way.

“Look at him with Bokuto,” Kiyoomi said, watching as Miya looked to where Bokuto and Hinata were lying on the floor, talking animatedly to each other and Yuki as she soaked up their attention. “If he chose him, how would you feel?”

Miya blinked in surprise. “I would-” he paused and took a breath, truly contemplating. “I would accept it. I’d be jealous, but,” he shrugged and sighed, “I wouldn’t take that away from them.”

“Them?” Kiyoomi asked in surprise. “You care for Bokuto as well?”

Miya blushed and quickly shook his head as he gulped. “ _Not like that_ ,” he stressed in a whisper. “I just mean, y’know, together and stuff.”

Kiyoomi didn’t point out that Miya wasn’t making sense, as he didn’t want to make Miya think any more than he already was.

As quickly and un-awkwardly as Kiyoomi could manage, he nudged his elbow against Miya’s arm and then sipped his tea as if he hadn’t moved.

Miya gave a small and genuine smile as he pushed his golden fringe from his face.

“Help me with those?” Kiyoomi asked, picking up one of the other drinks and nodding his head to the other. Miya nodded and they took the drinks to the coffee table in front of the sofa, placing them on the coasters already spaced out.

Kiyoomi sat on the corner sofa in the spot he usually occupied, which caught Yuki’s attention, as her ears pricked up and she dashed over to him.

“Hey, pretty girl,” cooed Kiyoomi, scratching under her chin as she pressed her face against Kiyoomi’s neck. She was the only one allowed this near to him. At least, that was until the three men occupying the rest of the sofa started becoming so close to him. Kiyoomi didn’t even mind.

“Aww,” Hinata pouted, propping his chin on his knees as he gazed at Yuki snuggling into Kiyoomi’s neck. “She knows who her daddy is, huh?”

Kiyoomi tried to hide the sudden surge of butterflies that danced through his stomach as Hinata grinned widely at him.

He nodded instead of speaking, secretly liking that Hinata was focused on him for once.

“Never thought I’d hear you call Omi-kun _daddy_ , Hinata,” Bokuto teased with a wild sparkle in his eyes.

Kiyoomi glared at Bokuto, but Hinata didn’t seem fazed as he laughed and blushed. When Hinata turned away to scratch his fingers behind Yuki’s ears, Bokuto stuck his tongue out at Kiyoomi and wiggled his brows. Miya glanced at them both suspiciously while sipping his tea, only to be quickly distracted as Bokuto tried to ruffle Miya’s hair.

“Off, off,” he scolded, attempting to lean away but not doing so enough so Bokuto still managed to easily reach him.

“So soft,” cooed Bokuto and he gently ran his fingers through Miya’s waves, causing Miya to blush extremely while hiding his face in his mug of tea.

Kiyoomi couldn’t help but smile at their antics, how Bokuto would always win despite Miya’s complaints, and how Miya never tried to stop him completely, or would try to discreetly move closer when he thought no one would notice. Except Kiyoomi did notice. Noticed how Miya’s eyes would seek Bokuto out just as much as they did Hinata, how his cheeks turned pink when Bokuto saw him looking.

A light snore alerted Kiyoomi to Hinata with his head tilted onto the back of the sofa, eyes closed and mouth parted as he breathed slowly.

“All the excitement must have worn him out,” mused Bokuto, still playing with Miya’s hair.

“How late is it?” Miya suddenly asked, leaning forward so Bokuto’s hand dropped.

“Not that-”

“I should get goin’,” Miya cut Bokuto off in a rush, putting his mug back on the coaster and rising to his feet.

“You can stay for dinner,” offered Kiyoomi, unsure why Miya was now in a rush to leave.

Miya paused then shook his head in dismissal. “Maybe next time.”

Kiyoomi quickly passed Yuki to a wide-eyed Bokuto and followed Miya to the front door.

“Stay,” insisted Kiyoomi, crouching down beside Miya as he tied the laces on his trainers.

Miya looked to Kiyoomi then sighed and whispered, “I can’t do this.”

“Do what? Has something changed?”

With a shrug, Miya stood, now patting his hair down where it had been messed up from Bokuto’s hand. Was that it? Did Miya not like Bokuto’s attention?

“We’re s’posed to be focused on Shouyou,” he said.

“So you’re leaving? Even though Hinata is here?”

“It’s not-” Miya cut himself off and stuffed his hands in his pockets. “I can’t explain it.”

“Try,” insisted Kiyoomi, taking a tentative step forward, unsure what more he could do.

Miya waved his hand in the direction of the living room. “I don’t get it,” he said even more quietly. “Is he like that with you? Does he make you feel like that as well?”

“Feel like what?” Kiyoomi whispered in return, tilting his head down to try and read Miya’s expression better.

Miya licked his lips and met Kiyoomi’s eyes. He rubbed his hand over his chest, his mouth opening and closing.

“You know,” Kiyoomi whispered slowly, “Bokuto is only like this with us.”

“He is?” Mused Miya, still rubbing his chest. “I’ve never seen him play with your hair, though.”

Kiyoomi gave a half-smile. “He’s tried. I wouldn’t let him.”

Miya gave a small laugh and nodded in what Kiyoomi hoped was understanding.

“Tell him he’s not why I’m leavin’,” Miya said softly, his head leaning forward before he quickly turned and left through the door.

So Kiyoomi did. He told Bokuto that Miya couldn’t explain his feelings or why he needed to leave, but that it wasn’t Bokuto’s fault.

“I think,” Kiyoomi said. “He needs to wrap his head around how we are.”

“He hasn’t noticed until now?” Bokuto asked.

“Neither has Hinata,” Kiyoomi pointed out, to which Bokuto nodded in agreement. “They can both be very oblivious at times.”

Bokuto gave a small laugh and scratched at his head, letting out a deep breath. “Maybe I shouldn’t-”

“No,” Kiyoomi shook his head. “You didn’t do anything he didn’t want you to. He just thinks our priority should be Hinata and not…” Kiyoomi didn’t finish, never having had the conversation with Bokuto that had lingered in the air with them for a while now, left unsaid but always implied. Kiyoomi kind of liked it that way with Bokuto, never feeling the need to have every detail of their interactions laid bare. They knew how to be around each other and that was enough. That was until Hinata entered the team and they also started getting closer to Miya.

Bokuto tapped the space between their hands from where they sat across from each other, the coffee table between them as they spoke. Hinata was still asleep so they were being quiet so as not to wake him.

“Don’t think about it so hard,” Kiyoomi said, watching as Bokuto furrowed his brows and gnawed on his bottom lip.

“Is it just us?” Bokuto asked, now drawing patterns around Kiyoomi’s hand, close but not touching. “Are we not obvious? I thought… or is that the problem? Am I thinking there’s something there isn’t?”

“ _Bokuto_ ,” Kiyoomi said firmly, trying to catch Bokuto’s wandering mind before it wandered too far.

He ever so slightly slid the pads of his fingers over the back of Bokuto’s hands, heard how Bokuto gasped in response and looked up at Kiyoomi in awe. Maintaining his gaze on Kiyoomi’s face, Bokuto turned his hand palm up and waited for Kiyoomi’s response. With the sound of his heart pounding through his ears, Kiyoomi slid his hand into Bokuto’s, felt his rough skin against his own along with the heat and strength it radiated.

Then Yuki leapt onto the table, knocking over an empty cup that clanged against the wood of the table, starting Hinata awake who rubbed his eyes and blinked sleepily.

Kiyoomi didn’t give in to the urge to pull away from Bokuto’s hand, didn’t need to in fact, as Bokuto moved first. He quickly squeezed Kiyoomi’s hand and smiled warmly as he collected the empty cups and took them to the kitchen.

“Is it morning yet?” Hinata yawned and stretched his arms above his head.

“No,” Kiyoomi smiled. “It’s time for dinner.”

“Dinner sounds great,” Hinata smiled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (please let me know if the emoji's aren't visible and I will change them to text)
> 
> Thank you for reading!  
> ~ comments and kudos are welcome  
> [twitter: NightBronze](https://twitter.com/NightBronze)


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for such a lovely response to the first chapter, hope you enjoy this one, too 🥰
> 
> Also... I'm still crying from the latest manga chapter and that end... Cries intensify! Not ready for the last *ever* chapter next week 😭😭

Shouyou was sure that he’d seen Sakusa and Bokuto holding hands, was sure he’d heard their voices gently whispering, but he’d woken so suddenly he couldn’t be certain if he’d dreamt it all.

He also couldn’t help but hope that they had been. Shouyou had seen them act closely before, how they smiled and were so relaxed together. It made Shouyou feel warm inside when he was with them, and they felt like that too, then Shouyou’s feelings couldn’t be all that unfeasible.

It didn’t make sense that Miya had left while Shouyou was asleep, but Sakusa hadn’t given much of an explanation. Maybe he’d needed to go somewhere? 

What Shouyou knew for sure, was that all three of them had been giving him more attention than usual. And Shouyou liked it a lot.

“Shouyou?” Hitoka asked, tilting her head at him and making him snap out of his daydream.

He smiled and focused on his friends around him while they ate together. It had been a while since he’d been able to sit and eat with Hitoka, Yamaguchi, Tsukishima and Kageyama like this. He certainly didn’t want to spend the whole time thinking about his… teammates. Yeah, _teammates_. Because they weren’t exactly more than that... yet.

“Why do you keep zoning out?” Kageyama asked around a mouthful of food.

“Ah, sorry,” Shouyou bowed his head and resumed eating.

“Please tell me you’re not thinking about volleyball,” Tsukishima sniggered.

“Nope,” Shouyou smiled, trying to ignore his blushing.

“Oh?” Tsukishima continued. “Something caught your attention more than how many balls you can hit?”

Shouyou hummed and shrugged. “I guess? A little?”

“Are you feeling okay?” Kageyama asked, pressing his hand to Shouyou’s forehead.

Shouyou batted him away, knowing Kageyama was only mostly teasing.

“Promise not to think I’m… I don’t know,” Shouyou groaned as he tried to explain. “I just, kind of like someone…”

“You do?” Yamaguchi perked up, looking eagerly interested.

“Plus two…” Shouyou said slowly, his heart picking up its pace slightly.

“So that’s three someones?” Hitoka confirmed, quickly catching on to what Shouyou meant.

Shouyou sighed. “Yeah. Three someones. All at the same time. And I think they all like each other, too. But I don’t know how to confirm that and I don’t want to make things awkward between us all by asking.”

“You could ask them all separately?” Suggested Yamaguchi.

“Oh,” Shouyou blinked in surprise. “I hadn’t thought of that."

“Who is it anyway?” Kageyama asked.

Shouyou supposed he could trust everyone at the table not to go around telling others. They all become surprisingly close through their years in high school and Shouyou had shared a lot of himself with them, as well as them doing the same in return. He trusted them.

“Bokuto, Sakusa and Miya,” he said quickly and shovelled food in his mouth while they all processed.

Tsukishima grinned and eyed Kageyama. “Seems you’ve found yourself a new favourite setter.”

Kageyama frowned and turned his glare to Shouyou.

“Hey!” Shouyou said as he swallowed. “It’s not like I was going to spend my life with one setter.”

“I don’t think you have to worry about Bokuto liking you back,” Yamaguchi said with a smile. “He’s always had a soft spot for you.”

Shouyou blushed and smiled gratefully. “Yeah.”

“So you don’t know who to pick?” Kageyama asked, clearly trying to ignore the whole setter thing.

Shouyou nodded. “How can I pick who I like the most when I like them all equally? And then what if they like one of each other more than me?”

“Who says you have to pick?” Tsukishima asked like it was the easiest thing in the world.

“I can’t be with them all.”

“Why not?” Hitoka asked, surprising Shouyou by how confidently she spoke.

“Well…” Shouyou started though didn’t actually have a reason. Other than not knowing how the others felt, which apparently could be easily solved.

“Relationships don’t have to be limited to two people you know,” Tsukishima said, sounding far happier than Shouyou had expected.

Shouyou leant forward across the table, needing to know more. “What does that mean?”

With a tilt of his head, Tsukishima raised an eyebrow and obviously looked at Yamaguchi and Hitoka, who were sat next to each other beside him, and then looked back at Shouyou expectantly.

Shouyou waited wide-eyed for whatever Tsukishima was about to reveal. But from Tsukishima’s silence, he apparently already had. Yamaguchi and Hitoka looked nervous all of a sudden. Then it clicked.

“You three?” Shouyou whisper-shouted as he practically hovered over the table.

Hitoka nodded with Yamaguchi and they revealed their clasped hands from under the table, and as Shouyou looked to Tsukishima, he could see that his hand was resting on Yamaguchi’s knee.

“S-since when?” Shouyou asked in a rush as Kageyama pulled him back down to his seat. “Did you know?” He then asked Kageyama who appeared as bemused as Shouyou.

“We wanted to tell you in person,” Hitoka explained. “It happened while you were away and we didn’t want to say it over the phone.”

“Okay,” nodded Shouyou, now smiling widely at how perfect he thought his friends were together. “How did it happen?”

“I went on a sort of date with Yachi and we confessed to each other at the end,” Yamaguchi said as pink dusted his cheeks. “And then I met Kei to tell him, but he confessed to me, too. I was confused about what to do at first, but Kei suggested they both date me. So that’s what we did and because the three of us were comfortable hanging out together so much, Kei and Yachi ended up falling for each other, too.”

Yamaguchi was practically glowing as he explained, the sheer joy of their relationship working out so well was clear through his body language.

Tsukishima rested his chin on his hand and grinned at his boyfriend and girlfriend. “It wasn’t exactly difficult to fall for both of you.”

“ _Kei_ ,” Hitoka whispered as she held her blushing cheeks in her hands. “Don’t get all sweet on us.”

“Aww, guys,” Shouyou cooed, delighted by their soft flirting. “I’m so happy for you.”

“Mm,” nodded Kageyama while sipping on his drink.

“How about you, Tobio?” Hitoka asked with a smile. “Are you interested in being with anyone?”

Kageyama frowned seriously. “Not exactly.”

Tsukishima smirked and jeered, “have you even had your first kiss yet?”

Shouyou immediately felt his face set on fire as he blushed from head to toe, Kageyama looking much the same as their eyes met and they quickly looked away.

“Wait,” Tsukishima said, looking suddenly horrified as he scrunched up his face. “I hope those reactions don’t mean what I think they do.”

“It was just practice kissing!” Shouyou said in a rush, much louder than intended. “And we don’t see each other as more than friends, so we stopped after a while.”

Tsukishima laughed in disbelief. “Practice kissing? I thought that only happened in shoujo manga.”

“You knew didn’t you?” Yamaguchi asked a sheepish looking Hitoka.

She gave Shouyou and Kageyama an apologetic look, so Shouyou shrugged.

“I walked in on them once,” she confessed with an awkward laugh.

“A-anyway!” Shouyou scrambled to change the topic. “Aren’t you still talking to that girl from the Olympics?” He asked Kageyama.

Kagayami bonked his fist on Shouyou’s head. “I told you not to tell anyone!”

“Ow!" Shouyou hissed and rubbed his head. “I forgot, sorry.”

But they both knew it was too late.

“You got a girl? The king is actually interested in something other than volleyball?”

“Shut up,” groaned Kageyama as he rolled his eyes with a pout. “She’s an athlete, too. We met at the Olympics while she was competing in another sport. We’re still in contact but because we’re both focused on our careers, we decided not to settle into a relationship. Maybe in the future.” He shrugged like it wasn’t a big deal, though he had a small smile on his lips that only Shouyou and his friends would notice.

Tsukishima hummed and grinned in the way that meant he was pleased for them, but wouldn’t say it with words.

“Stop it,” Kageyama insisted with a growl and kicked Tsukishima under the table.

“Is that what you’re stooping to?” Tsukishima continued to tease. 

Neither of them backed down until Hitoka and Yamaguchi stepped in to scold them, while Shouyou was unable to contain his laughter.

**//**

A plan wasn’t exactly what Shouyou would call the idea he had come up with. A plan would mean he knew exactly what he was going to say and do, to which he actually had _no idea_. So Shouyou was winging it. He was going to try and find out exactly how his romantic interests felt about each other. Somehow.

“Just tell them,” Kozume said on the phone while Shouyou cycled to training.

“Or,” Shouyou panted. “You could find out from Kuroo what Bokuto-”

“Not happening,” Kozume said once again. “I’m not using my boyfriend to find out how his best feels about you.”

“But _Kenma_ ,” Shouyou whined. “Bokuto is your best friend, too.”

“Mhm,” Kozume hummed, clearly ignoring Shouyou’s pleas.

“You’re really not going to help?”

“Shouyou, you don’t need my help. You already know how they feel.”

Shouyou groaned. “I know, I know, but I want them to like each other as well.”

“Even if they didn’t, I’m sure something could be arranged so you’re all happy.”

Shouyou really couldn’t argue with that. “I like them all so much, Kenma.”

“So go make them yours,” Kozume said like it was as easy as winning one of his games.

“Wish me luck!”

“You can do it,” Kozume cheered around a yawn.

Shouyou waited for Kozume to hang up, as he couldn’t do it with his headphones. Kozume was most likely going back to sleep while Shouyou was just starting his day. He was pumped and excited just as much as his nerves were gnawing away from inside to out.

Whatever it was he about to do, he could do it. Just like Kozume and everyone else had said.

When Shouyou got to the locker room, he was about to push open the door when heard voices already inside. So he stopped for a moment, registering that Miya, Bokuto and Sakusa were in there talking. Shouyou became excited again.

“...backing out?” He heard Bokuto ask.

“I don't think it’s fair anymore,” Miya responded.

“We’ll stop then,” said Sakusa.

“I just want Shouyou to be happy,” Miya said, sounding almost defeated.

Was there a reason for Shouyou _not_ to be happy? None that Shouyou could think of, other than having less time on the court.

“If he found out about this challenge-” Miya started to say.

“He would probably laugh and be flattered,” Bokuto said with a smile in his voice. “Shouyou would know that we were competing for him because we all like him so much. What is there to be mad about?”

 _They all like him so much? Competing for him?_ What was going on? Was the reason they’d all been giving him so much attention lately because of this challenge? And what was the prize for the winner? It couldn’t possibly be Shouyou. Could it?

Shouyou couldn’t bear to eavesdrop any longer, so pushed hard against the door so it flung open with a bang.

“Oops,” he laughed when they jumped and their eyes darted to him. “I pushed too hard.”

Maybe, if they’d been playing a game with him, Shouyou could play a game with them, too.

“Atsumu-san!” Shouyou called as he jumped onto Miya’s back and hung his arms over Miya’s broad shoulders.

Miya jumped, the tips of his ears flushing red as he glanced up at Shouyou. “How’s it goin’ Shouyou-kun?”

Leaning his mouth towards Miya’s ear, Shouyou whispered, “can I tell you a secret?”

Goosebumps rose along the skin of Miya’s neck as he shivered, gulped and answered, “s-sure.”

Shouyou had made sure to wait until practice had finished for the morning, knowing they would be working on their fitness in the gym for the afternoon.

With Miya trailing behind him, Shouyou led them to a bench in the corridor, a little way from where everyone else was. He sat down, patted the space beside him and tried to be relaxed despite his pounding heart threatening to grow wings and fly free.

Meeting Miya’s eyes, Shouyou smiled while holding his hands between his knees and said, “I have someone I like. And I want to tell them.”

Miya’s eyes widened in surprise. “You do? And you’re telling me?”

Shouyou nodded. “We’re pretty close now, right? I want to talk to you about it.”

“Of course,” Miya agreed with a small sigh. “You can talk to me about anything.” He gave a half-smile and nudged his shoulder against Shouyou’s, his expression open and willing to listen.

“I… like Omi-san,” Shouyou said more calmly than he thought he would. “And… uh,” Shouyou paused, wondering how much he should divulge. “I want to tell him.”

Miya nodded, appearing to understand more than Shouyou anticipated. “He’s a great guy.”

“Right?” Shouyou grinned. “I like the little things he does and how gentle he can be. And that smile he gets when we win or score a point, or we do something amazing or silly, and make him laugh.”

Shouyou looked up to find that Miya was returning his fond smile. Could he get his hopes up that Miya thought the same? That he also liked Sakusa?

“You should tell him,” nodded Miya.

“You don’t think it would make things weird in the team? What if-”

“ _Shouyou-kun_ ,” Miya scoffed and raised a disbelieving brow. “You’re both professional and focused when it comes to volleyball. You don’t need to worry about that. And also, you better not be sayin’ that you don’t think he’ll say yes. I know I can’t think of a reason for him to say no.”

“Atsumu-san,” Shouyou whispered adoringly, feeling flattered and giddy from Miya’s heartfelt words.

Shouyou held back the urge to confess to Miya, too, to tell him that he liked Miya just as much and wanted to see his wide and pretty smile as well. Instead, he grinned widely, grabbed Miya’s hand and pulled him towards the gym, ignoring how sweaty his palms had become.

Talking to Bokuto and Sakusa went much the same, neither expressing any forms of jealousy or restraint. All of them felt that the other would accept Shouyou, that he should pursue his confessions.

“As long as you’re happy, Hinata,” Bokuto had said with his soft and understanding smile. “Atsumu is crazy pretty so I can see how he caught your eye. And not to mention how easily he blushes when you tease him.”

Shouyou laughed. “He does blush easily doesn’t he.”

Sakusa had let out a deep sigh and tilted his head. “You finally realised?”

“What do you mean _finally_?” Shouyou had asked a pout that was mostly a smile.

“Haven’t you and Bokuto been pining since you were in high school?”

“N-no,” Shouyou stuttered then scratched his head. “I don’t think so? I’ve just always looked up to him and appreciated that he always believed in me.”

“Everyone believes in you, Hinata,” Sakusa said, genuinely meaning every word as he knocked his elbow against Shouyou’s arm.

Shouyou beamed from the contact and briefly leant into Sakusa’s side before jumping to his feet.

“Okay! I better start planning when to confess.”

**//**

_“I have something to say!” Atsumu blurted out to Sakusa and Bokuto while walking out of the building. Hinata had already whizzed off on his bike, so it was safe to talk without him walking in like he so often did._

_“Me too,” nodded Bokuto looking mostly excited but also nervous._

_“Actually, I also have something to say,” Sakusa added to Atsumu’s surprise._

_“What?” Atsumu blanched, his pulse picking up at receiving more news that may not please him. He didn’t hate that Hinata wanted to confess to Sakusa, he was happy for them in fact, but he had still wished and hoped that Hinata would choose him._

_“Can I go first?” Bokuto asked, practically vibrating with the need to speak._

_Atsumu shrugged while Sakusa nodded._

_“Hinata, uh, chose who he wants I guess? I probably shouldn’t be telling you, because he trusted me with this, but the three of us have been talking to each other about how we feel about him and… stuff.” Bokuto’s arms swung as twisted his ankles and couldn’t keep still._

_What was he talking about? That sounded exactly like what Atsumu was going to say to them._

_When Atsumu and Sakusa simply waited, Bokuto continued. “He’s going to confess to you, Tsum-tsum,” he said more happily than Atsumu would ever have expected._

_“Wait-” Atsumu shook his head, processing what Bokuto had said. “But he told me he was going to confess to Omi.”_

_Sakusa started to laugh, his eyes crinkling as he looked at the two stood in disbelief. Atsumu certainly wasn’t finding this funny._

_“You know what he told me?” Sakusa asked, still smiling fondly at them with such beauty that Atsumu had to swallow his pounding heart down. “That he wanted to confess to Bokuto.”_

_Bokuto’s eyes went wide as he gasped in awe. “He played us.”_

_Sakusa nodded with a hum._

_“Shit,” Atsumu said as he pushed his hair off his face. “So which of us does he really want?”_

_Bokuto giggled and hooked his arm over Atsumu’s shoulder. “Haven’t you figured that out yet, Tsum-tsum?”_

_Atsumu peeked up at Bokuto, his stomach fluttering from how close Bokuto’s face was to his. “Figured what out?”_

**//**

The following day at training, Shouyou was surprised to find that nothing had changed. At least not in the way he had expected it to.

He had thought, after overhearing them speaking about liking him, that they would have immediately gone to each other to share what he’d said. But perhaps that wasn’t the case. Or were they keeping it to themselves because Shouyou had trusted them with the information? Honestly, Shouyou wouldn’t have minded if they had talked to each other about it. He just wished that he could bring them all together in the way he wanted. But he knew how difficult it was to figure out you liked _one_ person, never mind three simultaneously. He was crazy about all of them, wanted all of their affections and smiles, wanted to make them smile and be happy in return. 

Now Shouyou was far more aware of Bokuto, Miya and Sakusa than he had ever been. And it appeared they were just as aware of each other.

When Miya removed his jacket in the morning after warming up, Bokuto folded it for him and put it on the bench beside his own. Miya simply rolled his eyes with that half-smirk, the tips of ears turned red and Bokuto laughed and grinned.

During the first break, Miya handed Sakusa his towel while teasing about something. This caused Sakusa to frown while pushing his sweaty curls from his face and once again Miya blushed as his eyes never veered away. Shouyou had to admit he also couldn’t look away.

While eating lunch, Bokuto got rice stuck to his cheek and Sakusa pointed it out. But when Bokuto kept missing the exact spot, Sakusa actually used a napkin to wipe Bokuto’s face for him. Shouyou was sure from Bokuto mischievous and very pleased expression that he had missed on purpose, which Sakusa had also known as raised his brows while Bokuto bit his lip to hold back a laugh.

Shouyou was quickly becoming flustered over the matter. Even while playing training matches, they would pat each other on the back, give a high-five and nudge their arms. There was no way they had been like this before. Could Shouyou hope that they had become much closer? Or this all apart of their challenge?

After training had finished and everyone was packing up the equipment to leave, Shouyou was running through some spiking drills with Miya. Coach had said it was fine to continue as long as they cleaned up after and didn't practice too long.

Shouyou positioned himself close to the net when Bokuto’s head popped between his thighs.

“Wha-”

“Hold on!” Bokuto exclaimed, grabbing Shouyou’s thighs and hurling him up onto his shoulders.

“B-Bokuto-san!” Shouyou wailed from surprise as he clung to Bokuto’s forehead.

“Try hitting now!” Bokuto said excitedly, his large hands hot against the skin of Shouyou’s thighs as he held firm.

Shouyou nodded determinedly and looked to Miya who by now was indifferent to Bokuto and Shouyou’s antics.

“Pretty sure this isn’t what coach had in mind,” Miya said as he spun the volleyball between his palms.

“Heh, nope,” smiled Shouyou, now excited to try Bokuto’s idea.

“Alrighty then,” Miya grinned, too, never one to turn down a challenge.

Shouyou swung his arm back, trusting Bokuto to keep them balanced as Miya set the ball to him. As his palm collided with the fast-flying ball, dark curls caught Shouyou’s sight in his peripheral, but it was too late to warn Sakusa whose head was tilted back as he drank from his water bottle. He didn’t see the ball coming as he walked across the other side of the court, but Shouyou knew he felt as the ball smacked right into the side of Sakusa’s head.

“Omi-san!” Shouyou yelled in a panic, watching as Sakusa’s bottle flew from his hand as Sakusa also collided with the hard floor.

Bokuto set Shouyou down and they ran under the net to Sakusa with Miya.

Sakusa rolled face up and covered his arm over his eyes while the three of them leant over him.

“Are you okay? I’m sorry I-”

“By the time we noticed you it was too late-”

“It wasn’t my idea, but I’m sorry too-”

“Guys,” Sakusa sighed, cutting off all their apologies. He shifted his arm from his eyes, blinked up at them and said, “good hit.”

Shouyou laughed in relief and lay down on the floor beside Sakusa so their heads were upside down next to each other. Rolling his head to the side, Shouyou met Sakusa’s eyes and giggled when their noses booped.

Very quickly, Bokuto joined them, lying half on Shouyou as he peered his face over Sakusa’s. Adoration sparkled in Bokuto’s eyes as they shared a smile, and Shouyou couldn’t look away for fear of missing a single second of their gentle and familiar exchange.

Miya sat on the floor next to Sakusa, crossed legged as he shook his head at them all. But it didn’t last long, as Bokuto reached out a strong arm and pulled Miya’s hand so he tipped forward, landing on Sakusa’s chest with a thump. Miya’s face was beet red as he gazed down at Sakusa, clearly not knowing what to say or do. But as Bokuto and Shouyou shared a glance, neither could hold back their laughter from the silliness of the situation.

“You’re all ridiculous,” pouted Miya as he avoided Sakusa’s gaze and tried to hold back a smile.

“I love you guys,” Shouyou said as easily as breathing, as a fact he wanted them to know because he so truly did. There was no need for a planned speech or rehearsal of what to do, no thinking over multiple times of how it would play out.

All their heads turned to him, shocked by the bold wording that he had become so used to while in Rio with everyone’s more familiar gestures being the norm. 

“Especially when it’s all of us like this,” he continued, no longer feeling the need to hold back or reserve his thoughts. He wanted, no, _needed_ them all to know regardless of how it could change their friendship. As long as they would still be apart of his life, he could be happy.

“That’s it!” Bokuto exclaimed, suddenly kneeling up. “The four of us! It makes _so_ much sense!” He groaned dramatically like he’d needed to say those words for a while and he also could no longer restrain his thoughts.

Shouyou became wide-eyed and excited as he waited for him to continue. If this was going how he thought it was… Shouyou could hardly contain the flurry of butterflies creating a storm in his tummy.

“I got so confused when I realised I liked you guys, too,” Bokuto said while looking at Sakusa and Miya and scratched the back of his head with a buoyant smile. “I thought I was betraying Hinata or something.”

“Hm? Betraying me?” Shouyou asked in confusion.

“Well, I liked you first!” He stated so easily. “For a long time, actually. And then we had this bet-”

“Wait!” Miya interjected as he sat up on Sakusa’s lap, then realised his position and quickly scrambled off with red ears. “You can’t just _tell_ him-”

“Why not?”

“Just tell him,” Sakusa yawned, also rising to sit crossed legged, unphased by the current topic _or_ Miya’s embarrassment.

Shouyou sat on his knees, fists clenched on his thighs in anticipation. Was this going exactly how he wanted it to?

“Fine,” Miya groaned and folded his arms across his chest as he looked to Shouyou. “I challenged these two to see who could make you fall for them first.”

Shouyou’s shoulders slumped in relief as the wait of secretly knowing was released. “I already know that!” He waved his hand dismissively, now more focused on what this all meant, what it could be leading to. “You all like me too?”

“Yes,” Sakusa answered with a nod. “But then you told each of us that you liked the other.”

Shouyou let out a giddy laugh. “Yeah, to see what you all would do! But you didn’t seem to mind, but then I saw you all getting along, too and I was like BAM, if they could all like each other and we could be together that would be _so_ much easier than trying to choose _one_ \- I tried! And it didn’t work. _So_ I needed to think how to tell you all, but then we knocked Sakusa down and I just said it. It felt right to say it.”

Miya leaned towards Sakusa and asked, “did he breathe at all just then?”

But Sakusa wasn’t listening. “You want all of us to be in a relationship? All four of us?”

“Mm-hm,” nodded Shouyou, not allowing himself to think or worry or second guess. He had too much hope running through him to back down now.

“I’m in!” Bokuto agreed, raising his arm and slamming his hand to the air between them all.

“Oh!” Shouyou perked up and gingerly placed his own hand on top of Bokuto’s, loving the feel of his heated fingers beneath his palm.

Miya and Sakusa shared a look as Shouyou and Bokuto watched them, waited for them. Shouyou _needed_ to know right now what they wanted, how they felt, could they do this? But they needed to think, they needed time. It wasn’t so easy to agree to something so big if it had never even been considered before.

The longer Shouyou stared at their exchange, the more he noticed their expressions. It wasn’t a competitive glare, nor an annoyed rile. They were looking at each other like they weren’t sure how the other felt, if they might want this too or if they were about to be rejected. But Shoyuou had _seen_ how they were together, how they bumped into each other in a friendly manner, how they smirked and teased across the court in a challenge they both enjoyed. How their eyes lingered when they thought the other wasn’t watching.

Sakusa nodded, apparently answering the question from Miya’s gaze. Then each of them raised their hands, Sakusa’s next with Miya on top.

Shouyou breathed out long and quiet, his smile filling with happiness and content. “I love you,” he said again, aimed at them all without having to specify so.

Miya blushed furiously. “Are you goin’ to say that all the time now?”

“Can I?” Shouyou asked as he leaned forward in anticipation and elation.

Miya backed up a little, the blush on his cheeks deepened even more and spread further to his ears and chest

“Whoa,” Bokuto gasped in awe. “I’ve never seen you blush so much. It’s so pretty!”

“P-pretty?” Miya spluttered, his hand coming up to cover his face. He looked to Sakusa for help, who now had his head tilted in contemplation.

Sakusa nodded in agreement. “You are.”

“Right, right?” Shouyou joined in, clapping his hands together as his cheeks began to ache from so much smiling. 

“As much as I like the attention,” Miya said as he rubbed the back of his neck. “Can we not do it so quickly like this?”

Shouyou slumped. “We can’t?”

With a groan, Miya tilted his head to look to the ceiling. “How am I supposed to deny those puppy eyes?”

With a bright laugh, Shouyou launched himself forward, wrapping his arms around Bokuto and Sakusa’s necks on the way as he threw himself onto Astumu’s chest, making them crash to the floor once again.

Miya, now even more embarrassed, uncovered his face and met Shouyou’s gaze. “We’re really doing this?”

Shouyou nodded, smiled at Bokuto and then Sakusa. “It has to be all of us. Then we all win! Right?”

Sakusa chuckled, boldly laid his head on Miya’s shoulder and caused him to blush all over again. Bokuto reached over Shouyou’s back and found Sakusa’s hand, laced their fingers together and grinned widely.

“We all won pretty big here, huh?” Bokuto laughed, nuzzling his face into Shouyou’s hair and then doing the same to Miya whose eyes were wide from embarrassment.

Shouyou smushed Miya’s face between his hands and cooed. “He’s blushing again. I didn’t know you could be so shy Atsumu-san.”

“I’m not surprised with you lying on him like that,” jeered Sakusa, poking at Shouyou’s waist.

Shouyou giggled at the contact and wriggled around, causing Miya to make a high-pitched hum as he nibbled on his bottom lip.

“Tsum-tsum,” whispered Bokuto as he gently stroked Miya’s cheek. “You’re okay with this, right? It’s not too much too soon?”

Miya shook his head and leant into Bokuto’s touch. “I just feel… a little unprepared that I never considered this. And… I’ve been pretty oblivious to all your flirting haven’t I?”

Bokuto hummed and winked. “Just a little.”

“He was literally stoking your head and you didn’t realise,” Sakusa said to Miya with a teasing tone.

Miya groaned and said, “I didn’t think it meant that! Bokkun is so, y’know, affectionate and stuff. It was making me think how much I liked it though. Which is kinda-sorta why I ran out. I was s’posed to like Shouyou, right?”

“When did this happen?” Shouyou asked as he rested his chin on Miya’s broad chest.

“You were asleep,” Sakusa said with a fond smile.

“Anyway,” Miya said with a small pout and he turned to Sakusa. “Have you always known? You and Bokkun seem way closer than I thought. You even send each other pictures.”

Shouyou felt his own cheeks heat up suddenly. “P-pictures?”

Bokuto laughed. “Not like that, naughty Shouyou.”

“Oh,” Shouyou smiled and stuck his tongue out. “Otherwise… I’d need to see.”

“Shouyou!” Miya gasped while Shouyou giggled.

“We’re boyfriends now, right? Wouldn’t that be okay?”

“Slow down a little,” smirked Sakusa, his cheeks also faintly turning pink as he reached up and booped Shouyou’s nose with his finger. “They were just selfies or pictures of Yuki like you’ve seen before. Bokuto and I have, hmm, an unspoken understanding.”

“What does that mean?” Asked Miya.

“It means,” Bokuto started, meeting Sakusa’s gaze and sharing that familiar smile they always had. “We know we like each other but never did or said anything about it. And we’ve been okay with that.”

Miya pouted with a frown. “Have you two been playing me this whole time?”

Sakusa hummed and shrugged, his small smile saying everything.

“That first time you were both late to meet?”

“Maybe,” chuckled Bokuto.

“That cute selfie with your cat?”

Sakusa grinned. “You think I’m cute?”

“Tsum-tsum was very impressed with that one,” teased Bokuto.

Shouyou groaned and pouted. “Please let me see?”

“I’ll show you later,” Sakusa said as he grazed his thumb over Shouyou’s chin.

Shouyou’s chest turned warm as he became caught up in Sakusa’s captivating gaze. He could feel himself leaning in as his eyes fluttered down to peek at Sakusa’s parting lips.

“Are they…” whispered Miya in awe.

Shouyou couldn’t help but lightly smile as Sakusa closed the gap, pulled Shouyou down to meet him and pressed a soft kiss to his lips. Of course, Sakusa’s skin was pristine and moisturised, while Shouyou would need to work on that. Sakusa didn’t seem phased though as he pressed harder against Shouyou's chapped lips and led them through the sweetest kiss Shouyou had ever had.

“Don’t stop,” Bokuto pleaded when Shouyou ever so slightly pulled away.

“But what about you?” Shouyou aked in a fuzzy daze, his mind mostly blank of anything but Sakusa’s touch.

Bokuto hummed in thought before he turned to look at Miya who was equally as awestruck.

“How about it, Tsum-tsum?”

Miya blinked for a few seconds before catching on to what Bokuto meant. “M-me?”

“Uh-huh,” Bokuto nodded, clearly eager while also patiently waiting.

“Okay,” Miya nodded in a flurry, much faster than Shouyou had expected.

Bokuto was practically glowing as he reached his fingers into Miya’s hair and waited still.

“You have to come to me, Bokkun. I’m a little stuck here.”

“Oh! Right,” Bokuto chuckled and wriggled forward.

Their noses pressed together at first as Bokuto waited for Miya to lean all the way in. As their mouths pressed together, Miya predictably blushed but so did Bokuto. He smiled through the kiss as Miya tilted his head and Bokuto’s fingers stroked through his hair.

“Don’t hold back,” Miya breathed out as he briefly met Bokuto’s gaze. Bokuto didn’t need to be told twice, as his tongue snuck out and Miya gasped from the touch and he returned the notion.

Shouyou’s stomach was doing flips along with his thundering heart. He couldn’t look away as he needed to capture each movement, sound and touch into his mind to remember it forever.

“They’re so hot,” Shouyou whined without realising, making Sakusa grin and pull Shouyou to his chest as they continued to watch. “M-my turn,” he blurted and bit his lip, wanting to be kissed by them just as much as he wanted to see them kissing.

“So impatient,” Miya panted, as he peered at Shouyou with flushed cheeks.

Shouyou shook his head, uncaring as he clambered up Miya’s chest so he could reach his mouth.

“I love this new side of you,” Bokuto cooed as he stroked the side of Shouyou’s face and tugged his thumb over Shouyou’s bottom lip.

“Which one,” Shouyou whined to himself as he became torn over who to kiss next.

Miya made that decision for him, as he tilted Shouyou’s head and captured his lips. Shouyou melted into him, loving how Miya had become confident. Shouyou cupped Miya’s cheeks and felt Miya’s hands rest on his hips. Holding back whilst knowing they were still on the court wasn’t easy. Shouyou _really enjoyed_ kissing and wanted to do it all day. Especially with his now boyfriends.

“Oh,” he gasped when Miya licked at Shouyou’s bottom lip. He opened his mouth wider to let Miya in and was truly turning into a puddle as the heat built and his mind melted. “Tsumu,” he murmured as he pecked kisses over Miya’s lips and trailed them up to his ear. “Love you,” Shouyou whispered, causing Miya to shiver exactly how Shouyou knew he would.

“Did you see that?” Bokuto asked in amazement, probably noticing Miya’s shiver and goosebumps, too.

“Let me,” Sakusa said he plied Shouyou away and took Miya’s lips for himself.

Shouyou sat up on Miya’s lap and took a breather. He was getting dizzy from all the kissing and honestly couldn’t believe that his dreams had come true. These men were his now and he was so elated and overjoyed that he wanted to shout it to the world.

Bokuto sat up, too, and stroked at Shouyou’s hair, kissed at his cheek and nuzzled his neck.

“You happy, Shouyou?” He asked as he wrapped his arms around Shouyou’s waist.

Shouyou leaned into him, threaded his fingers through Bokuto’s hand and reached up to kiss him too. It wasn’t as heated and long as the others but Shouyou didn’t mind. Bokuto didn’t either.

“Liked me for a while, huh?” Shouyou asked, remembering what Bokuto had said earlier.

Bokuto grinned and nudged their foreheads together. “Don’t you know how flattered I was to have you want to be an ace like me? You listened to everything I said and supported me on the court. Just seeing your bright smile made me feel like I could take on the world.”

“Did Kenma and Kuroo always know?”

Bokuto nodded. “Keiji, too. It’s not easy to flirt with someone who’s in a different country though.”

“I think you flirt just fine,” Shouyou grinned and stroked his thumbs along the apples of Bokuto’s cheeks. “I love how affectionate you are.”

“You are, too,” laughed Bokuto as he squeezed Shouyou tight and kissed the side of his neck.

Shouyou laughed and squirmed as it tickled, but he didn’t pull away or let go.

“ _Shouyou_ ,” Miya groaned from beneath him as he glared up at Shouyou with a glint in his eye.

Shouyou looked down, registering where exactly he was sitting and blushed as he sheepishly smiled. Rather than moving, Shouyou took Miya’s hand and pulled him up so he could wrap his arms around Miya’s neck.

Miya sighed and muttered against Shouyou’s head, “love you.”

“What about me?” Bokuto asked as he rested his chin on Shouyou’s shoulder.

“All of you,” Miya grumbled though he was smiling.

“I love all of you, too,” Bokuto said with an enthusiastic nod.

Sakusa came up behind Bokuto and snuggled his face into their small huddle. “Me too,” he said to them, then collapsed his hand around Bokuto’s nape, whose brows shot up in surprise. “Don’t make me wait any longer.”

Bokuto nodded slowly with wide eyes as he ever so carefully leant between Shouyou and Miya to reach Sakusa, who immediately set about kissing him. Shouyou gulped and peeked at Miya who was just as in awe at them kissing literally in front of their faces.

“Guess we did all ended up winning,” Miya muttered to himself, causing Shouyou to smile even more.

**//**

After finally untangling themselves from the floor, they packed away the equipment and headed for a quick shower. Which ended up being just as awkward as Atsumu had expected.

Thankfully, Bokuto had declared a race of who could shower the quickest so that they could get dinner much quicker. Sakusa had taken his sweet time, insisting that he wasn’t going anywhere until he was clean. And Hinata… Well, he mostly took a while because he kept getting zoning out and getting flustered.

“Let's go to my place!” Declared Bokuto while drying Atsumu’s hair. Atsumu could have dried it himself but when Bokuto eagerly offered and ran his gentle hands through Atsumu’s hair the way he had started to do so often, Atsumu couldn’t say no.

“Will you cook?” Sakusa asked while finally getting dressed.

“You can cook?” Shouyou asked in surprise.

Bokuto shrugged and nodded. “Course I can. Omi-kun loves my cooking so I’m sure you will, too.”

Sakusa gave a faint smile as he dried his own hair and hid the blush creeping along his cheeks.

“What will you make?” Asked Shouyou as Bokuto unlocked his front door and let them in.

“Depends what I have in,” Bokuto grinned like it was a secret he was enjoying dangling in front of their noses.

“Can I help?” Sakusa asked while placing his shoes on the rack by the door.

“You can all help,” Bokuto said brightly and gestured for them to enter into the kitchen.

The large space surprised Atsumu as he never knew that Bokuto cooked or would have chosen to live somewhere with such a large kitchen. Of course, he knew Bokuto liked to _eat_ , but then again most of their teammates were the same.

“You already know your way around?” Hinata asked Sakusa who began setting out chopping boards, knives and other utensils.

Atsumu sighed. “You two have kept how close you are so tight-lipped.” He _wasn’t_ pouting or at all jealous that they knew each other better than he knew them. In fact, Bokuto also knew Hinata the best. Was Atsumu the only one who didn’t know them so well?

Sakusa leant over the counter where Atsumu was definitely not sulking and softly smiled at him. “You’ve known me the longest, you know. From training camp in high school.”

“Just ‘cus I‘ve known you longer doesn’t mean I know as much about you.”

“So get to know me better,” Sakusa said it so easily that Atsumu almost felt bad for pouting. Was it wrong that he wished he knew them all better than anyone else?

“Tsumu!” Hinata sang and grabbed Atsumu’s waist. “What’s your favourite colour?”

“What?”

Hinata made a cute grumbling sound and frowned. “I want to know you better, too.”

“Me, too, Tsumu,” added Bokuto as he grinned at him from across the kitchen.

“Oh,” Atsumu blushed and sheepishly scratched the back of his head. 

This wasn’t a one-way thing, it was a _four-way_ thing where they all wanted to get to know each other better and learn what everyone’s favourite things were. He didn’t need to know any of them the longest because from now on, they were _all_ together in one relationship. All loving each other the same and wanting to be with each one of them just as much. That was the point. That none of them could choose who they preferred because it was impossible for them to make that decision. And they didn’t need to force themselves to do that when they all felt the same.

So they told each other their favourite colours, favourite foods and music and sweets. Little things and big things that perhaps weren’t so significant, but it still mattered to them.

“I want to know everything,” Atsumu said while sitting on Bokuto’s lap with his legs across Sakusa’s thighs and Hinata lying on his chest.

“ _Tsum-tsum_ ,” groaned Bokuto as he poked Atsumu’s cheek repeatedly. “We just became boyfriends. What’s the rush?”

“Mm-hm,” nodded Shouyou in agreement as he tapped an uneven rhythm on Atsumu’s chest. “This is the start of our forever right?”

Atsumu chuckled and pinched Hinata’s cheeks. “So cheesy.”

“Don’t you like cheesy?” Sakusa asked as he stroked his long fingers along Atsumu’s ankle at the same time as resting his head on Bokuto’s shoulder and holding Hinata’s other hand.

Atsumu stuck his tongue out and grinned. “Only with you guys.”

“So cheesy,” Hinata teased and slowly kissed Atsumu’s lips.

“This is nice,” Sakusa said with a sigh as he gazed at them adoringly.

“Yup,” nodded Bokuto.

Shouyou sniffled and half-buried his face on Atsumu’s neck. “Love you lots,” he said to them affectionately as his eyes sparkled.

Atsumu wasn’t sure how long it would take to get used to this. But he felt so overjoyed and proud of them for getting together.

“The start of our forever, huh?” Atsumu muttered as he nuzzled his nose against Hinata’s cheek and tilted his head to rest on Bokuto’s broad chest.

Bokuto hummed and placed a gentle kiss on Atsumu’s brow. “We’ve got so much love between us already. It’s only gonna get stronger.”

Atsumu’s pounding heart really needed to hurry up and get used to all their affections quickly.

Shouyou wriggled up and hooked his arms around them, pulled their heads close together with a giggle and kissed them all in turn.

Yeah, scratch that. Atsumu was never going to be able to calm his heart with these three as his boyfriends.

“He’s blushing again,” whispered Shouyou, making Atsumu open his eyes to see them all gazing at him intently.

“So pretty,” Sakusa whispered, only causing Atsumu’s whole body to heat up all the more.

“Yeah, well,” Atsumu spluttered, trying his best not to avert his eyes. “Not my fault you guys are so…”

“So…” Bokuto repeated in eager anticipation.

“Y’know,” Atsumu said as he looked at them all in the tiny space between their faces. “You’re all pretty, too.”

“Just pretty?” Bokuto asked in teasing disappointment.

Hinata laughed brightly and tickled Atsumu’s neck. “Did you see Omi with wet hair?” He whispered to Atsumu like the other two weren’t right there. “And when Koutarou flexes his arms.” He squeezed at his chest and pretended to faint.

“Yeah,” Atsumu nodded. “That’s what I mean. And when you soar through the air above us all, it’s like the sun has entered the court.”

Hinata blinked at Atsumu’s gentle smile, his cheeks turning red as his eyes started to water again. “Being on the court with you guys is the best feeling,” he said with a brilliantly wide smile. “And now it’s going to be more amazing than ever.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!  
> ~ comments and kudos are welcome  
> [twitter: NightBronze](https://twitter.com/NightBronze)


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The latest chapter I was writing got away with me! So much so I've had to split it in half, or this would be over twice as long - so there will be four chapters instead of three (the last coming later this week, and will be the longest chapter)
> 
> Enjoy! 💖

Koutarou had been trying to come up with an _amazing_ date idea to take his _boyfriends_ on. Because he could say that now or think it, he supposed. 

They spent so much time being pros that the only quality time they got together was when eating at one of their places or going grocery shopping for the food they'd use to make what they ate. And Koutarou had zero problems with that, loved it in fact, but he was becoming in desperate need of a change of pace. The chance to spoil his boyfriends not only with food and kisses and affection but with great memories, too.

"You're no help," he whined down the phone to Kuroo, having stupidly asked for his advice. Koutarou wasn't even sure Kuroo and Kozume had ever _been_ on a date.

"Just ask them," Kuroo said like it was that simple.

"It wouldn't be a _surprise_ if they knew about it," Koutarou stressed as he waved his arm at no one while pacing in his kitchen.

"Have you tried Akaashi?"

"Naah," sighed Koutarou, now running his hands back and forth through his hair. "Keiji's got so much going on with his latest project that I don't want to bother him with my relationship struggles."

Except, as it turned out while at game night at Kozume's, that Akaashi was _exactly_ who Koutarou should have asked first.

"You all like eating, right?" Akaashi asked while they hovered in Kozume's kitchen, away from their group (and Hinata) for a moment.

Koutarou nodded and gave Akaashi an exasperated expression that said _do you know me?_ Because of course they liked eating!

"Try going somewhere to eat that isn't a typical restaurant. Like an ice-cream parlour or bakery? Maybe then take whatever you get there to a big park where you won't be disturbed or recognised and have a picnic, go for a walk, feed some ducks."

Koutarou was practically vibrating with excitement already. "Keiji, you're the best!" He exclaimed in a whisper and wrapped Akaashi in a tight and quick hug.

Before Akaashi had time to hug him back, Koutarou was off back into the living room, snuggled up to Hinata and pretended to pay attention to the game they were playing. Even though all he could think about now was how to turn Akaashi's date idea into a reality.

**//**

Miya's ever-watchful eyes had been burning into Koutarou's head all morning, and he wasn't sure what exactly he'd done wrong. Or if he'd done anything wrong at all.

What if Miya had figured out what Koutarou was planning? He didn't want the surprise to be ruined before it had started.

"Everything okay?" Miya asked while they were having a drink break in the middle of practice, his fox eyes boring into Koutarou's in search of… something.

"Yup!" Koutarou nodded and smiled genuinely. Because everything was okay and he wasn't about to try and trick his boyfriend. "Although…" Koutarou trailed off and slowly prowled towards Miya who suddenly shifted on guard. "I am in need of a kiss," he whispered in a husky tone, right down Miya's ear in the way that always got him flustered.

Miya's mouth twisted in consideration as he quickly glanced around at their teammates, registered that they were all looking elsewhere, before turning back to Koutarou to land a fast and chaste kiss on his lips. He then sauntered off with red-tipped ears and didn't look back.

Koutarou beamed in delight from getting what he wanted and that Miya had given it to him while on the court.

They weren't trying to hide their four-way relationship by any means (at least from their friends and family), but they'd quickly established a none interference rule for while they were training. This was their job and career after all, which they all took seriously and didn't want to bring their private lives into their games.

In all honesty, their team had picked up on their change of interaction pretty quickly, even in the small exchanges they made before and after training. Koutarou surprisingly hadn't been the first one to get caught out, as Sakusa had been absentmindedly holding Miya's hand upon entrance one morning, and Tomas had seen them, registered, smiled in a congratulating way and carried in.

Koutarou hadn't minded, but he didn't want everyone thinking that they weren't his boyfriend's, too.

Then there was the time after they'd finished showering at the end of the day and Hinata had given Koutarou his t-shirt back, saying, "it's all clean now. Thank you for letting me wear it to sleep at yours."

Which, of course, Inunaki had overheard. And when Hinata was gone, he had given Koutarou a pat on the back and asked with a smirk, "he sleep at yours often?"

Koutarou had shrugged. "Yeah he sleeps over more and more recently."

It wasn't until later that Koutarou had considered the implications of his answer. But he didn't mind.

"Are you sure it's okay for me to stay over again?" Hinata asked while lazily stretching out on the sofa, one hand patting his full stomach while the other propped his head up.

"It's no problem, Shouyou-kun," insisted Koutarou as he set some steaming mugs of tea on the coffee table and sat on the floor.

"It's just…" Hinata nibbled his lip in thought and ran his hand through Koutarou's hair as he leant back on the sofa. "When I moved in with Kenma, Kuroo wasn't living there yet. And it was good. And it's _still_ good. Only… now I feel like the third wheel friend who won't get the hint to move out."

Koutarou frowned. "They make you feel like that?"

"No!" Hinata said in a panic as he quickly shook his head. "Not at all. It's me who thinks that. Even though I moved in before Kuroo, he's Kenma's boyfriend, so…" He made a grumbling sound and buried his face in Koutarou's already dishevelled hair.

"Have you spoken to them about it? You know Kenma probably wouldn't mind if you lived with him forever. And Tetsurou wouldn't mind if Kenma was okay with it."

Hinata sighed a little and bent down to smush his cheek against Koutarou's. "It won't be forever. It was only meant to be while I got my feet back on the back on the ground. It wasn't like I could move back home and commute up here every day."

"So… now your feet are securely in place, will you look for somewhere to live on your own?" Koutarou tugged Hinata down into his lap and wrapped him in his arms.

Hinata hummed and scratched his nails under Koutarou's chin and through his stubble. "I'll have to find time to do that now. But I have no idea where to start."

"I can help you."

Hinata hummed with a sad frown that made Koutarou worry.

"Do you not want to?"

Hinata twisted Koutarou's shirt in his hands and muttered, "not really."

"What about it don't you like?" Koutarou asked, wanting to make sure Hinata was happy.

"The... _alone_ part."

"Why's that?" Koutarou asked, taking Hinata's worrying hands and kissing the tips of his fingers.

"I hated feeling alone in Brazil. Before I became friends with my roommate and before I knew people and stuff. It wasn't a good feeling." Hinata sighed and moved his arms around Koutarou's shoulders. "I don't want to be alone again."

"Shouyou," whispered Koutarou in concern, hating how sad and unsure Hinata looked and sounded. "Well," nodded Koutarou, not hesitating as the thought came to him. "You'll have to live with me then."

"Really?" Hinata asked in surprise, his brows raising as his eyes widened.

Before Koutarou could respond, Hinata's phone began vibrating on the coffee table with Miya's face taking up the screen.

"It's Atsumu-san!" He said in delight and quickly answered. "Hello!"

"Hey, Shouyou-kun, you fancy coming over? Omi-kun’s already on his way.."

Hinata raised his brows in question at Koutarou, who naturally nodded at the prospect.

"Of course! What about Koutarou-san?" Hinata asked, his fingers now moved back to stroking Koutarou's chin and jaw.

"Well, yeah!" Miya answered like it was obvious. "I just called you first."

"Well that's good," Koutarou said into the phone as he grinned and tried his best not to purr from Hinata's affection. "Otherwise you'd be in big trouble."

Miya laughed. "I just knew you two would be together already. Shouyou-kun practically lives with you these days! Some of us might start getting jealous."

"You jealous, Tsum-Tsum? Never would have considered," Koutarou teased him playfully. "But don't worry, there's plenty of me to go around. You can stay over, too, if you like."

Miya spluttered and mumbled something under his breath. "Just hurry up already," he whined.

"Miss you, too, Atsumu-san!" Hinata said with a giggle.

"Yeah, yeah, miss you," Miya said fondly, a smile clear in his tone. "I have that film that you wanted to watch, too, Bokkun."

Koutarou felt his chest inflate in adoration as his heart fluttered in excitement. "We'll be right there, Tsumu.”

They made it to Miya’s in record time after picking up some popcorn bags on the way. Hinata skipped up the stairs, his mood now perked up as they got closer to their lovers.

“Atsumu-san!” Hinata called out, not even knocking as he raced through the door.

Koutarou chuckled at his energy, shut the door behind them and picked up the shoes Hinata had flung behind him in his rush.

Koutarou smiled at Miya humouring Hinata and swinging him around from where Koutarou had assumed Hinata had jumped on him. It was so easy to be that way with each other now they all knew how they felt.

Sakusa was sitting on a stool at the counter in the small kitchen, a fond look in his eyes as he watched their interaction. Koutarou joined him, putting the popcorn on the side and leant over the counter to kiss Sakusa’s cheek.

“Hey,” Koutarou whispered when Sakusa turned towards him and met his lips.

“Someone’s excited,” he mumbled against Koutarou’s lips.

“He practically ran here,” chuckled Koutarou as Sakusa gave a small smile.

Miya carried Hinata over to them and sat him on the stool beside Sakusa.

“I just missed you,” Hinata said, continuing what he’d been saying to Miya.

“You saw us yesterday.” Miya smiled sweetly and stroked Hinata’s cheek as Hinata managed to wriggle into Sakusa’s lap while Sakusa attempted to keep balanced on the stool.

Koutarou wasn’t sure whether to point out that Hinata still had that unsettled look in his eyes from earlier. Would it be okay to talk about it? They were all in a relationship together, so surely talking about how they were feeling, their worries or concerns should be natural. But they were Hinata’s feelings that he had brought up with Koutarou, so he didn’t want to bring it up if Hinata didn’t want to.

“We brought popcorn,” Koutarou said, immediately catching Hinata’s attention as he’d hoped. “And you have the movie?” He said to Miya, only fluttering his eyelashes a little.

Miya nodded, so Koutarou pulled him over and pressed his face into Miya’s soft hair. “You two are bein’ clingy today,” mused Miya as his nails circled patterns on Koutarou’s back.

“Naah,” Koutarou sighed and poked his finger into Miya’s waist, making him jump. “We’re always this clingy.”

It wasn’t until they were settled on the sofa, popcorn in bowls and curled up together that Sakusa noticed how quiet Hinata had become. Especially seeing as he’d run in with Koutarou earlier, Sakusa kept frowning at Hinata and looking questioningly at Koutarou. But it wasn’t Koutarou’s place to say.

They’d already had the serious conversation about their relationship, how they were exclusive to each other and needed to maintain their communication about _everything_. They’d done so well talking about how they felt about Hinata before they got together, and once Hinata had confessed and opened the floodgates of Koutarou’s locked up emotions, everything seemed to fall into place. They already saw each other every day, even if at training they maintained their professional teammate relationship. Once they were out of the doors, they settled back into being boyfriends. More often than not, they would venture to one of their places. Koutarou loved how comfortable and easy it was to be with them.

However, if Hinata didn’t talk to Miya and Sakusa as well, would that create tension between them or a divide?

“Get drinks with me?” Koutarou whispered to Hinata, needing to get him alone before Sakusa raised the building question.

Hinata took Koutarou’s hand and padded over to the tiles behind him, took glasses from the cupboard while Koutarou took iced tea from the fridge.

Bending down low and circling his arms around Hinata’s waist, Koutarou kissed at Hinata’s cheek and whispered down his ear, “Omi knows something’s on your mind.”

Hinata hummed as he held onto Koutarou’s forearms and leant back against his chest.

“Tell them. Please?” Koutarou whispered as he pressed kisses along Hinata’s jaw.

Hinata nodded and replied, “I want to. I just don’t want to spoil the mood.”

“Like you could ever do that,” Koutarou cooed, squeezing Hinata closer. “We love you. We want you to be happy. They’ll listen.”

“I know,” Hinata nodded in a small voice.

“What are you two whispering about?” Called Miya from the sofa, not missing a thing in his tiny apartment.

Koutarou had been amazed when he had first come to Miya’s and saw that his bed was up the narrow stairs leading up to a small loft space, only separated by a railing.

Hinata groaned, took two drinks with Koutarou and went with him back to the living space. After placing the drinks down, Hinata crawled into Miya’s lap and gnawed his bottom lip.

“Tell us,” Sakusa said softly as he took Hinata’s reached out hand.

Koutarou knelt on the floor and propped his chin on Hinata’s knee, waiting patiently for Hinata to talk. They knew their boyfriends would understand.

“I…” Hinata fiddled with Sakusa’s long fingers and sighed deeply. “Don’t want to live at Kenma’s anymore. But… I don’t want to live by myself.”

“I see,” mused Sakusa, giving a small nod in encouragement. “Why is it you don’t want to live with him anymore?”

“Well, Kuroo moved in after I came back. And it’s fine! I like living with them and it’s no trouble and not awkward. But… I don't want to be a third wheel imposing on them all the time. They’re a couple and should have the house to themselves without the roommate-friend who won’t take the hint to move out already.”

“Have they been hintin’ at that?” Miya asked in surprise as his defensiveness rose.

“No, no!” Hinata said in a rush. “That’s just how I feel.”

“You two spoke about this already?” Sakusa asked Koutarou and Hinata.

Koutarou nodded. “Just before we came here.”

Sakusa nodded and smiled at Hinata kindly. “Where will you live?”

“Well,” Hinata shifted and looked to Koutarou, their previous conversation not having been finished.

“I said that he can move in with me,” Koutarou said as he met Sakusa and Miya’s gazes in turn.

“Is that what you want, Shou-kun?” Miya asked Hinata as he gently stroked his cheek.

Hinata gave a small nod and said, “I’ve been spending a lot of time there anyway. But! If you two don’t want that then-”

“ _Shou-kun_ ,” Miya cut him off and smiled. “If you live with Bokkun, then it’ll be easier to see you both. And then Bokkun will have to cook for us more, right?”

Hinata gave a small and grateful laugh as he pressed himself closer against Miya’s chest.

“You’re okay with it?” Koutarou asked Sakusa who was simply watching Hinata and Miya adoringly.

He nodded. “I’d rather you were somewhere you felt happy and comfortable, not out of place. And we’ll all end up living together eventually. Even if we’re not all ready now, that doesn’t mean you two can’t be.”

Hinata nodded and rubbed his eyes. “Thank you, guys.”

“Aww,” Koutarou chuckled and snuggled in behind Sakusa, then pulled Hinata against Sakusa’s chest, while Miya naturally followed. “You need to stop being so cute, baby. My heart can’t handle it.”

“W-what,” spluttered Hinata as his cheeks turned red and hid his face against Sakusa’s neck while still maintaining Koutarou’s gaze.

“So cute,” agreed Miya as he tickled Hinata’s side and Sakusa nodded in agreement while lovingly kissing Hinata’s crinkled forehead.

**//**

Bokuto had been acting suspicious for the past few days and Atsumu couldn’t figure it out. They’d all been helping Hinata slowly move in over the past two weeks and he was finally set to _officially_ settle in. But Bokuto had been bouncing around since the final box was unpacked that morning and continuously checked his phone or was furiously tapping away on it.

“Spill,” Atsumu said while corning Bokuto in the kitchen.

Even though they were boyfriends, Hinata had moved his belongings into Bokuto’s spare room, because he hadn’t wanted Hinata to feel any pressure about sharing, and that meant Hinata could still have his own space if he needed it. Not that Atsumu thought Hinata would actually use it, but it was still a nice gesture.

“Nothing to spill,” Bokuto said in a pathetic attempt at lying as he held up his hands in surrender. 

Atsumu placed his hands on his hips. “You can’t fool me, Bokkun. What’re you hidin’? You've been actin’ this way for weeks now.”

Bokuto shrugged and gave that wide grin that definitely meant he was up to something. But as there was no trace of guilt, Atsumu couldn’t be mad about it. He just wished he knew what it was.

Bokuto swatted away Atsumu’s hands and replaced them with his own, overtaking Atsumu’s hips with his large hands as he pressed their foreheads together.

“Promise you’ll like it,” Bokuto said against Atsumu’s lips in that purring tone that made Atsumu’s stomach do flips and his knees weak.

Atsumu grumbled a little more before giving in and taking Bokuto’s mouth against his own. Bokuto knew Atsumu was weak for their affection and it was the easiest distraction to make. But Atsumu was still suspicious, even if Bokuto’s promise made him feel a little easier about whatever it was.

“It’s not far!” Bokuto insisted as they arrived at a nature park near the mountains and began leading them up a trail.

“Where are we going?” Hinata asked once again, his smile not leaving his face for a second.

“Isn’t this away from the main path?” Sakusa asked as he held a branch out of the way for them to pass.

“You could have warned us you wanted to hike,” Atsumu said, now wishing they were back at Bokuto’s, rather than wherever it was he was leading them to.

Bokuto had suddenly announced that he was taking them somewhere after his phone had buzzed _again_ , and so here they were. In the middle of the woods without another person in sight.

“We’re not going to walk for long,” Bokuto said as he winked at Atsumu.

Atsumu frowned even though he could feel his ears heating up.

“It’s fun, Tsumu-san!” Hinata called out to him as he jumped over branches and leaves, his energy infectious as always.

“Yeah, yeah,” Atsumu said as he returned their smiles and took Bokuto’s outstretched hand, secretly loving how he swung them between them and caressed his thumb over Atsumu’s knuckles.

So what if they all had him wrapped around their fingers? Who was Atsumu to complain when they all made him feel so loved and adored?

After walking uphill through the leafy thicket and dangling tree branches, Bokuto suddenly stopped with his phone in his hand once again.

“What is it now?” Atsumu grumbled, disliking that Bokuto had been paying so much attention to his phone.

“Just a sec’,” he pleaded, tongue stuck between his teeth and quickly tapped away with his thumb, as his other hand was still laced with Atsumu’s.

“Are we there?” Hinata asked as he skipped over and peered over Bokuto’s arm.

Bokuto quickly locked his phone and grinned. “It’s all ready now. Let’s go.”

Atsumu shared a glance with Sakusa, who stroked the back of Atsumu’s neck on his way past, always reassuring Atsumu with his gestures.

Sidestepping through a small gap between bushes, Bokuto led them out into a small clearing filled with wildflowers of pastel blues, pinks and lilacs. To one side of the clearing lay a large polka dot blanket with a wooden basket perched in the centre, and cushions scattered around the edge.

“Whoa!” Hinata gasped, hands rushing to his face as his eyes blew wide.

“Bokkun,” Atsumu murmured as he also gazed in awe.

“Pretty cool, right?” Bokuto grinned as he guided them to the blanket and expectantly waited for them to sit.

“How did you do all this?” Sakusa asked with a small and fond smile.

Bokuto shrugged with a smug spark in his eyes. “Oh you know, I had a little help.”

“Is that why you’ve been on your phone non-stop all morning?” Atsumu asked as he got comfortable on the cushion beside Sakusa.

“Maybe,” teased Bokuto as his smile widened.

“Something smells good,” Hinata commented, his mouth already watering as his heart-eyes stared at the picnic basket.

“Hungry, Shou-kun?” Atsumu purred as he stuck out his tongue to the excited Hinata.

Hinata eagerly nodded and looked to Bokuto who was watching them all adoringly.

He opened the lid and began setting out the side dishes of foods and treats, along with plastic crockery, utensils and cups.

“I packed a lot, so you better eat up,” Bokuto said with a light blush dusting his cheeks. That was rare. Bokuto never became embarrassed around them.

“What’s all of this for?” Sakusa asked as he allowed Bokuto to pile up his plate. “Are we celebrating something?”

Bokuto shook his head. “I just wanted to treat you all and take you out. But it’s not easy to go unnoticed when we’re all together, so somewhere private seemed better. Keiji helped me come up with the idea and set it up while I was with you.”

“Aww, Bokkun,” cooed Atsumu with a grin, attempting to hide how fast his heart was happily beating.

“It’s so pretty here,” Hinata managed to say with a mouthful of steamed bun.

“Yeah,” Bokuto sighed, that unusual shyness appearing for a moment. “You guys make me happy, so I wanted to do something to make you happy. Or, happier than normal. With us all together as well.”

“You always make us happy,” Sakusa said sincerely, and Bokuto looked as though he was about to cry from those words, so Sakusa grabbed a rice ball and popped it into Bokuto’s mouth.

Atsumu chuckled to himself, loving the way they so easily spoke about how they felt or what they wanted. It had become a lot easier since Hinata had talked about wanting to move out, and the transition of him living with Bokuto had brought them all much closer. Even if Hinata had been anxious about leaving Atsumu and Sakusa ‘behind’, neither had felt that way. In fact, both Atsumu and Sakusa had reassured that they felt more at ease knowing Hinata was happy at Bokuto’s, rather than him being unhappy alone or 'third-wheeling', as he'd put it.

There were still moments where Atsumu wished he could say some of the more embarrassing things without getting flustered, but it was something he could work on over time.

“Okay, this is the best part!” Bokuto announced once they’d eaten most of the picnic food. 

He rummaged around in the basket and took out a small freezer box. When he opened the lid, inside were four small round tubs. He handed one to each of them, followed by a tiny spoon and grinned in excitement.

“You can open them now,” he announced encouragingly and watched each of them do so.

The tub was cold and dripping with condensation from the warm day. Under the lid was Atsumu’s favourite pudding flavoured ice-cream.

Looking up, he saw that Sakusa and Hinata both had different flavours.

“Is this why you were asking about ice-cream the other day?” Sakusa questioned.

“Mm-hm,” nodded Bokuto. “Taste it!”

Each spoonful melted in Atsumu’s mouth blissfully and he tried to savour each bite. Bokuto was so much more attentive than Atsumu had expected and he really loved that a lot.

“How’s yours?” Hinata asked Bokuto.

Bokuto smiled and nodded, causing ice cream to drip from his spoon and onto his wrist. “Oops,” he chuckled as he slowly licked the drip up his hand.

Hinata had paused, spoon mid-way to his mouth as he gaped at Bokuto’s action, his cheeks heating up with his wide eyes.

“Bokkun,” Atsumu smirked with a laugh. “You’re going to make Shou-kun pass out.”

“Hm?” Bokuto looked up in a panic but quickly calmed once he saw what Atsumu meant. With a sexy smirk, he met Hinata’s intense gaze and proceeded to lick his hand more slowly.

Atsumu hadn’t expected things to escalate quite like that.

Sakusa looked to Atsumu questioningly, and Atsumu knew he must have been bright red. But he couldn’t help it when his boyfriend was deliberately acting like that.

Without a moment's notice, Hinata leapt up and onto Bokuto, knocking him back, but luckily not spilling any ice cream. He bit his lip as his eyes locked onto Bokuto’s, then proceeded to lick the corner of Bokuto’s mouth, where the tiniest speck of ice cream had been.

“Guys…” Atsumu said in a small voice as the sound of his pounding heart vibrated through his ears.

Sakusa frowned in concern, immediately coming to Atsumu and putting his hand on Atsumu's shoulder comfortingly. Atsumu tried his best not to freak out or pay attention to his stomach twisting into knots.

"Tsumu…" Hinata said softly, reflecting that worry in his voice. "Sorry, I- uh got carried away and Bokuto was looking so… sorry." He gently crawled off Bokuto and bowed his head.

"No, no!" Atsumu said quickly as he ran his hands through his hair and tried not to appear sheepish. He needed to be confident about this. "It's not _that_ , I just…" he shrugged and diverted his eyes up to Sakusa, though he didn't know what he was expecting to find.

"Did we make you uncomfortable?" Bokuto asked softly, his hand coming up to cup Atsumu’s cheek, clearly wanting to ensure Atsumu was okay.

Atsumu shook his head and frowned as his mouth twisted in thought. He needed to say something before it became too late. Well, not that it would ever be _too late_ , but it was best to be open and communicate exactly how they all wanted each other too.

With a deep breath, Atsumu looked to his boyfriends so patiently waiting. "I've never been in a relationship before. Y'know, you guys are my first. And also my first _everythin'_." Atsumu tried to express through his expression what he was trying to convey without words.

"I'm your first kiss?" Bokuto asked in just as much joy as surprise.

Atsumu nodded and shrugged with a lopsided smile. 

"Ohh," Hinata gazed in awe, also appearing happy. "This is my first relationship, too," he said with an enthusiastic nod.

"But you said you like kissin'," Atsumu said with a frown.

"Well, yeah, I've kissed people before, but nothing more than that."

That information made Atsumu's ears prick up and his heart felt lighter in his chest.

" _Nothin'_ more than that?" Atsumu asked slowly, needing to be sure.

Hinata smiled, unfazed by the topic. "Yup. Nothing."

"You're the same?" Sakusa asked Atsumu as he stroked his hand up and down Atsumu’s back.

Atsumu nodded. "Nothin'. At all."

"Really?" Bokuto asked, sounding curious rather than shocked. "I would have thought you'd have been super popular and got tons of confessions."

Atsumu chuckled and smiled at Bokuto. "Yeah, I did. Just never accepted them. Volleyball is life, right?"

"Hmm," Bokuto nodded understandingly, not bothered at hearing Atsumu's words.

Atsumu scratched his head and properly took Sakusa's other hand into his, laced their fingers together and grazed his thumb over Sakusa's bumpy knuckles.

"You guys know what that means, right?" He asked, still shy of saying the literal words as he hoped they knew what he meant.

Hinata crawled over to Atsumu and placed a soft kiss to his cheek. "No sex?" He whispered, loud enough for the other two to hear, yet still kept the feeling of privacy.

Atsumu nodded as he moved into Hinata's waiting arms and gratefully rested his head on his shoulder. Hinata stroked his warm hands over Atsumu's arms and nuzzled his face into Atsumu's hair.

"Me, too," Hinata whispered as Bokuto rested his chin on Hinata's shoulder and met Atsumu's gaze.

"That's okay," he said softly and reached his hand up and into Atsumu's hair. "We're not rushing into anything, remember? Just 'cus Shouyou-kun is super thirsty for us doesn't mean we're gonna speed up."

Hinata grumbled but didn't deny the fact.

"And anyway," Bokuto continued. "We love you for who you are. Your hot abs and pert ass are just a bonus."

Atsumu chuckled as he smiled, grateful for how his boyfriends were so open and happy to discuss anything and everything.

While tugging on Atsumu's hand, Sakusa said, "and if you don't want sex to be an option, it doesn't have to be."

Atsumu nodded with a grateful hum and said, "I never thought about it until we all confessed."

"And that's okay," Sakusa reiterated softly.

"It's not that I don't want it… I just never thought about it or ever felt the need to have it. Never looked at anyone and wanted to. Until you guys."

"Atsumu," sang Hinata as he began to slowly sway him from side to side. "Everyone's different. And we're four people in a relationship, so of course we're all going to have different thoughts and feelings. There is no single answer to a relationship or attraction."

"That's true," Atsumu nodded in agreement, his heavy chest finally fluttering free.

Bokuto kissed Atsumu's nose, his cheeks and chin and cupped Atsumu's face in his large hands. "Love you," he said against Atsumu's lips, forever making Atsumu feel dizzy with excitement and content. "Shall we finish our ice-cream?"

And Atsumu just had to laugh and how easily Bokuto changed the subject to food, always wanting to make others happy through filling their stomachs with tasty treats.

"Sure," Atsumu said with a smile.

"And guess whose got a volleyball hidden around here somewhere," Bokuto said like he was revealing a big secret.

"I wonder who," Atsumu said, humouring Bokuto's playfulness.

"Whoever finds it first, gets to pick teams."

"That would be me then," Sakusa said, surprising them with how sure he sounded.

"What?" Bokuto gasped in confusion.

"It's right there," Sakusa explained, pointing to the bush filled with wild red berries with a yellow and blue volleyball poking out of the middle.

Bokuto sighed in defeat. "I thought it would be hidden properly."

"It's okay," Hinata said, kissing Bokuto's cheek and retrieving his pot of melting ice-cream. "Who do you want, Omi-san?"

Sakusa thought for a moment while they resumed eating, his eyes slowly roaming over them all without revealing a single thought.

"Atsumu?" Sakusa asked with his head tilted.

Atsumu's stomach did a flip as he eagerly nodded his head.

"Do you want to team up with me?"

"Yes," Atsumu said straight away, already moving closer to Sakusa with his spoon dangling between his teeth.

Hinata and Bokuto grinned at each other, knowing that they would be together. In all honestly, it didn't matter what their combinations were, as they were pro's and super skilled and powerful. That being said, Atsumu and Sakusa were absolutely going to win.

"Again!" Hinata declared after their fourth mini-match.

"No thanks, Shouyou," chuckled Sakusa as he wiped sweat from his brow with the hem of his shirt. Atsumu absolutely did not look at his abs.

"The sun will set soon, Shou-kun," Atsumu said to the now pouting Hinata. "We don't want to walk back in the dark."

"But..." Hinata trailed off, clearly trying to think of something to persuade them. "I'll hold your hand so you won't trip."

Atsumu blinked and smiled widely, ran up to Hinata and scooped him up into his arms. Hinata yelped and laughed in surprise with his head tipped back. "Don't worry Shouyou," he said and spun him around. "I'll carry you so you don't demand to stay here 'till sunrise."

"I wouldn't," Hinata said, though didn't sound very convincing. "Will you carry me all the way down Atsumu-san?"

With a hum, Atsumu gave a half nod. "I can try?"

"Oh! If I go on your back, it will be easier."

"Okay," chuckled Atsumu, unable to deny Hinata's request.

"Omi-saaan?" Bokuto sang out, his eyes darting to Atsumu and Hinata questioningly.

"No," Sakusa said immediately, knowing what Bokuto was hinting at.

"Please? Or I can carry you?" Bokuto skipped beside Sakusa and fluttered his eyelashes.

"And who's going to carry all the picnic things?"

"The secret elves hiding in the bushes," Bokuto said with his brows raised, a teasing grin on his lips as he tried not to laugh.

Even Atsumu wasn't sure if Bokuto was being serious or not. After all, he did have help setting all this up. They certainly weren't _elves_ but there had to be someone.

Sakusa sighed and held out his hand, which Bokuto took into his, his smile still wide even if he wasn't getting carried.

"The elves better hurry if they don't want to tidy up in the dark," Hinata said from up on Atsumu's back, his legs swinging back and forth while his hands rested on Atsumu's head.

"I'm sure they'll be fine," giggled Bokuto, jumping up to peck Hinata's lips. He quickly tapped something on his phone and sighed in relief when he received a fast reply.

"Thank you for today, Koutarou," Atsumu said to him as they began walking through the thicket. "It was fun."

"Yep!" Hinata agreed. "It's so pretty up here, too."

Sakusa hummed and nodded. "You'll have to bring us back sometime."

"Oh," Bokuto gasped as his chest puffed up and he nodded. "I can do that. I _will_ do that. For you guys, I'd do anything."

Atsumu chuckled and shook his head. "Don't go starting all that cheesy talk."

"But you love it, Tsum-Tsum," teased Bokuto and stroked the side of Atsumu's face.

Atsumu didn't respond, neither denying nor agreeing with him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!  
> ~ comments and kudos are welcome  
> [twitter: NightBronze](https://twitter.com/NightBronze)


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a long one guys! I just couldn't break it up because how each part flowed together, so hope you enjoy 💖

Shouyou had been missing the beach a lot lately, especially with the rising heat of the season. Rather than going alone, Shouyou thought it would be the perfect opportunity to take his boyfriends out for the day. Then he could teach them some beach volleyball tricks and they could swim in the sea.

He’d already briefly mentioned the idea to each of them, and all of them appeared happy with the notion.

Having put together his plan, Shouyou set out early in the morning, careful not to wake a snoring Bokuto as he tiptoed out. Though Shouyou wasn't sure why he was being quiet, as it took _a lot_ to wake Bokuto up when he was sleeping deeply.

Letting himself into Kozume’s with the key he’d been told to keep, Shouyou called out for his friend, knowing he’d still be up gaming and wouldn’t have gone to bed yet.

“In here!” Kozume called back from his bedroom.

Shouyou knocked on the door, excused himself as he slid it open and smiled as he saw Kuroo clinging to Kozume’s waist in the dim lamplight while Kozume clicked away at the switch in his hand.

“You okay?” Kozume asked when Shouyou didn’t immediately start talking.

“Oh!” Shouyou smiled sheepishly. “I was wondering if I could borrow your car.”

“Sure,” Kozume shrugged as he crawled out of bed and went with Shouyou to the kitchen. He handed Shouyou the keys and asked, “where are you heading?”

“The beach,” Shouyou said with a smile.

“And you didn’t invite me?” Kozume asked with a teasing glare.

“You can come next time!” Shouyou giggled and poked at Kozume’s sides, making him squirm and bat Shouyou away as he laughed.

“Are you taking your men?” Kozume asked easily. Shouyou had gushed about it for days after he confessed and Kozume had patiently listened to it all.

“Yeah,” nodded Shouyou. “I snuck out, so Koutarou-san doesn’t know I’m here. I wanted it to be a surprise, but they’ll figure it out when I tell them what to pack and wear.”

“Are you taking buckets and spades?” Kozume teased.

“Noo,” laughed Shouyou, aiming his hands to try and tickle Kozume again, but Kozume was quick and shuffled around the counter so Shouyou couldn’t reach.

“Will you put suncream on their backs for them?” Kozume stuck his tongue out as he continued to wind Shouyou up, already shuffling further out of reach from Shouyou.

Shouyou barked out a laugh, braised one hand on the counter and leapt over in one fell swoop. “Would you do the same for Kuroo?”

“No chance,” grinned Kozume, eyeing up his escape options in gamer calculation.

“Oh!” Shouyou paused, shook his hand and stepped back. “I have to go! We’ll continue this another time.”

“Sure,” Kozume hummed and stuffed his hands in the pocket of his hoodie.

He waved Shouyou out as Shouyou dashed out the door with thanks, and started the car slowly before driving away to his next destination.

He filled the boot with food in an icebox and the picnic basket he snuck from Bokuto, got packs of bottled water, sun cream, a watermelon and a wind blocker for privacy. Of course, he had a volleyball ready waiting at home, with a compact net that was perfect for the beach - hopefully, it would withstand professionals.

On his way home, he called both Sakusa and Miya on loudspeaker (who were already together, but Shouyou was too excited to question it), telling them to come to Bokuto’s with a bag packed with spare clothes, to dress summery with sandals, shorts and hats. They didn’t even question him, simply agreed and promised to be over shortly.

Bokuto was still sound asleep when Shouyou snuck back in, so rather than waking him up, Shouyou waited for Sakusa and Miya to arrive.

“If we’re quiet, we can cuddle up to him and when he wakes up, he’ll wake up to all of us,” Shouyou said in an excited rush.

“He’ll love that,” agreed Sakusa after he greeted Shouyou with a kiss.

“Let’s go,” Miya said in a whisper, taking Shouyou’s hand and leading them to Bokuto’s room.

Still curled around the cushion Shouyou had replaced himself with, Bokuto quietly snored with a beautifully calm expression.

Miya settled up by the headboard while Sakusa waited for Shouyou to wriggle back under Bokuto’s arms before lying behind him with his head propped up on his arm. Miya’s fingers naturally threaded through Bokuto’s unstyled hair and Shouyou kissed Bokuto’s nose.

“Koutarou,” Sakusa said loud yet gently, which caused Bokuto to stir and automatically pull Shouyou closer to his chest.

“Five… mm, minutes,” Bokuto mumbled as his breathing slowed down and back to sleep.

“Bokkun,” Miya sang down his ear and gave Bokuto’s arm a light shake. “We’re goin’ out. Let’s go.”

“Yeah,” Bokuto agreed sleepily without opening his eyes.

“Open your eyes,” Shouyou said with a giggle as Bokuto’s hands snuck under his shirt and stroked up and down his ticklish sides.

Bokuto smiled and blinked his eyes open, his expression pleased as he looked them all over.

“We having a snuggle party in my bed today?” He asked with a yawn.

“Nooo,” laughed Shouyou as he patted Bokuto’s cheeks and squished them together. “We’re going out. Right now.”

Miya was apparently getting impatient, as he scooped Bokuto up under his arms and pushed him into sitting.

Shouyou had expected Bokuto to collapse back onto Miya, but instead, he grabbed Miya’s hands and pulled him so he squashed against Bokuto’s wide back.

Miya groaned and slumped on Bokuto’s back, burying his face against Bokuto’s nape.

“Can we go now?” Sakusa asked intently and Bokuto nodded, though didn’t make an indication that he was going to move.

They finally made it to the car, but Sakusa had banned Shouyou from driving because he couldn’t keep still.

“I would have been fine,” he insisted from the passenger seat.

“You’re still wrigglin’, Shou-kun,” Miya pointed out from behind Sakusa’s seat.

Shouyou grumbled, knowing he couldn’t argue back because it was true. He was just excited to show his boyfriends how amazing volleyball could be on the sand.

“Oh!” Shouyou suddenly exclaimed, suddenly remembering. “You two were together very early today,” he said to Miya and Sakusa.

“They were?” Bokuto asked, from the seat behind Shouyou.

“Hmm,” Miya hummed in thought, his expression teasing as he bit his sticking out tongue. “Should we tell ‘em, Omi-Omi?”

Sakusa rolled his eyes. “I stayed at Atsumu’s last night because it was getting late and he didn’t want me going home in the dark.”

“You did?” Shouyou exclaimed, making to rise from his seat as he turned, but Sakusa lightly pushed his shoulder so he sat back down.

“It was just one night, Shouyou,” Sakusa said, keeping his hand on Shouyou’s arm a little longer before moving it back to the wheel.

“Where did you sleep?” Bokuto asked, sounding just as excited.

“In my bed,” Miya said with a shrug, like it wasn’t as big of a deal as it clearly was. At least, it was a big deal to Shouyou. If they stayed together for one night, then maybe they were both warming to the idea of more than one night, which could eventually lead to _living_ together. Well, maybe not as quick as that, but Shouyou could dream.

“How did you both fit up there?” Bokuto asked in amazement.

Miya rolled his eyes and poked Bokuto’s arm. “My loft ain’t that small, Bokkun. And you _lie down_ in a bed, not stand up.”

Bokuto hummed and wriggled his eyebrows as he captured Miya’s hand, kissed his knuckles and held it in his own.

“Koutarou,” Sakusa said in a slight warning tone as he raised his brows playfully.

“I’m being good,” Bokuto chuckled mischievously.

“Need a drink for your thirst Koutarou-san,” Hinata teased with a giggle and Bokuto winked at him through the rear-view mirror.

After what felt like hours, they arrived at the sunny beach and Shouyou directed to Sakusa where to park. Shouyou had picked out the perfect place and couldn’t wait to reveal more of his plan later on.

“You don’t have to carry _everything_ Koutarou-san!” Shouyou said in a panic as Bokuto packed his arms up with as much as he could.

“But I’m strong enough,” Bokuto tried to shrug like it was nothing but ended up causing a bag to slip.

“Give me that,” Miya scolded, pulling the bag from Bokuto’s arm. “Don’t go strainin’ yourself. We know how strong you are without you needin’ to flex at us.”

Bokuto pouted as he let them all take their bags from him, leaving Bokuto with the fold-out volleyball net and windbreaker.

Rising up onto his toes, Shouyou softly kissed Bokuto’s still pouting mouth. “Thank you,” he whispered sweetly, causing Bokuto to smile even if he tried to hold it back.

“One more,” Bokuto demanded with a grin, bending his head for Shouyou to kiss him again.

“You two finished bein’ saps?” Miya called from the steps that lead down to the sand.

“Coming!” Shouyou and Bokuto both shouted back as they hurried to catch up.

“Where should we set up?” Asked Sakusa as they walked up the beach. “You want to have privacy right?”

Shouyou nodded. “Yeah, that’s why I brought a windbreaker so we can hide a little. How about over there?”

As it was still fairly early in the day, the beach was still sparsely populated with people walking dogs, surfing the tide and swimming near the shore.

“There’s a slight ledge of sand here that dips out of view.”

Sakusa put his bag down while Bokuto unfolded the windbreaker and moved it with Sakusa so it curved around at the end and hid them a little more. Shouyou held out the blanket with Miya and eased it down next to the windbreaker, then they put their bags around the edge and sat down.

“Anyone hungry?” Bokuto asked, going for the picnic basket and cooler.

“Me!” Shouyou nodded and crawled next to Bokuto. “I packed lots of food and snacks.”

“Of course you did,” Miya teased, pulling Shouyou’s legs over his lap while he leant against Sakusa’s shoulder.

“Do you have anything planned for the day?” Asked Sakusa while he passed them all a bottle of water. “Other than volleyball.”

With a wide smile, Shouyou tried to think of what else there was to do. “We can swim? And build sandcastles, or jump waves, search for shells and pebbles or have races-”

“Breathe, Shou-kun,” laughed Miya as he ruffled Shouyou’s hair.

“We can do all of that,” said Sakusa with that slight and fond smile that made Shouyou’s stomach flutter.

“But first,” Bokuto declared as he passed out the food. “Eat up!”

“Shall we decorate it with pebbles?” Sakusa asked Shouyou as they smoothed down the edges of their western-style sandcastle.

“Yes! Good idea,” Shouyou nodded in awe and agreement.

Miya had insisted that he and Bokuto would win the sandcastle building contest, but Shouyou had faith in his and Sakusa abilities.

They’d taken opposite sides of the picnic blanket and had been carving out the sand for the past twenty minutes. Sakusa even had the idea of adding turrets and lines of bricks, while Shouyou managed to scoop out a surrounding water bed, but couldn’t figure out the logistics of a sand drawbridge.

Dusting the sand from his knees, Shouyou stood up and walked with Sakusa along the shore where the sand was wet and scattered with broken shells and pebbles smoothed from erosion.

Crouching down for closer inspection Shouyou picked up a few pebbles and turned them over in his hands.

"Shall we get big ones or small ones?" Shouyou asked himself. "I like this oval-shaped grey stone. And this one has white wavy lines on it."

Sakusa crouched beside Shouyou, handed him a curved pink shell and stood to walk a little further away.

Shouyou smiled, pocketed the pretty shell and jumped up to follow Sakusa.

When they made their way back to their sandcastle, Bokuto and Miya were bickering loudly as they hunched over what they were making. Shouyou couldn't see but he was sure it would look great.

"Shall we start around the edge?" Asked Sakusa as he began placing pebbles on the roof of their castle, lining inside the ridged walls.

"Mm," Shouyou nodded, following Sakusa's lead to create a spiral of shells and pebbles that met in the middle with a larger fanned shell at the centre.

After pouring water around the outside, Shouyou stood to admire their work. He retrieved his phone from the blanket, told Sakusa to smile, who did so with his eyes, and took a picture of him with the sandcastle. Then proceeded to take multiple more pictures of different angels with both Sakusa and himself in the shot, and even sneaking Bokuto and Miya in the background.

"We're done!" Shouyou called out, now wriggling with excitement to share their creations.

Miya groaned and turned with a pout. "We already know you've won without comparin'."

"Why's that?" Asked Sakusa.

Bokuto laughed and flung his arm over Miya's shoulder to pull him closer. "Tsum-Tsum fell on ours and squashed it," he explained, sounding happier about it than Shouyou expected.

"Only 'cause you kept tryin' to tickle me," Miya whined and buried his head in Bokuto's chest.

"Let's see!" Insisted Shouyou, skipping over to look anyway.

There was a mound of sand squared off with a pointed roof on the top that slid down into a squashed pile with sticks poking out of the sides.

"Aww," sighed Shouyou. "You worked so hard, too."

Bokuto grinned, soaking up the praise. "We did work hard, right?" He tapped Miya's nose with his finger and Miya shrugged in defeat.

"Our turn!" Shouyou yelled before Sakusa had the chance to comment on their sandcastle, as he was already being dragged away by Shouyou.

Shouyou kept hold of Sakusa's hand and pulled him to sit beside him on the sand. He waited for Miya and Bokuto to properly look at their castle and, from their expressions, Shouyou knew they liked it.

"What do you think?" He asked, unable to wait for them to speak first.

"It's amazin', Shou-kun," Miya said in a genuinely proud manner as he smiled fondly at Shouyou and Sakusa. "You guys did great."

Bokuto nodded enthusiastically in agreement. "It's so pretty, too! I like the shells and stones and the water going around."

Miya squatted down to sit closer to them, but Sakusa held up his hand and said, "wait, don't sit on ours, too."

"Wha-" Miya spluttered and frowned. "It was an accident!"

Sakusa hummed in thought, feigning disbelief as he shrugged.

Miya narrowed his hand and took a daring step forward, but rather than squashing the sandcastle, he launched himself at Sakusa instead.

Sakusa must have expected this, as he rolled to the side and out of the way. Before Miya could get a hold, Sakusa jumped to his feet and jogged side to side in anticipation, waiting for Miya's next move.

Shouyou shared a glance with Bokuto, who looked equally as excited as him. Shouyou and Bokuto loved joking around like this, play-fighting and teasing and chasing, flirting in the best way.

With a laugh, Shouyou jumped onto Bokuto's back and shouted, "after them!"

"Am a horse?" Bokuto laughed boisterously, even though he was already running in the direction Shouyou pointed.

"They're heading for the water!" Yelled Shouyou dramatically. He squeezed his thighs against Bokuto's sides, who responded by gripping tighter to Shouyou's knees.

Miya was attempting to knock Sakusa into the shallow water, but each time Miya grabbed Sakusa's arms, Sakusa used his feet to hook around Miya's legs, causing him to stumble and hold onto Sakusa for support instead.

Shouyou giggled to himself, so utterly in love and transfixed on every bit of affection and interaction they had together. Instinctively Shouyou, hugged Bokuto's shoulder tighter, leant forward to press their cheeks together and continued to watch from the shallow shore.

"Do you want to go in?" Bokuto asked as he nuzzled against Shouyou's touch and circled his thumbs over the tops of Shouyou's knees.

"Yeah," Shouyou said with a nod, and Bokuto gently eased him down.

Their boyfriends were sitting in a tangled heap when they walked over, and Shouyou immediately joined them, creating a splash with Bokuto following in tow.

"It's cold," Bokuto shivered when the water washed up to their stomachs along with a wave.

"I'll warm you up," Shouyou said as he shuffled onto Bokuto's lap and looped his arms around Bokuto's waist.

"Don't you want to swim?" Sakusa asked as he leaned back on his hands, causing Miya to fall into Sakusa's side.

"I don't mind," shrugged Shouyou with a hum. "Gotta get Koutarou-san warm first."

Bokuto chuckled and held Shouyou close. "He's all mine," he teased and stuck his tongue out.

"We'll see 'bout that," warned Miya as he squinted his eyes and scanned their surroundings. "Shou-kun, fancy wave jumpin' with me?"

"Yes!" Shouyou agreed straight away, abandoning Bokuto's warm embrace to join Miya in the waves.

"Count who gets the most," Miya told Sakusa and Bokuto as he took Shouyou's hand and waited with him for the first wave. "Ready?" He asked Shouyou, who nodded in return and squeezed Miya's hand.

The first few waves were small, so they managed to jump them together, but the deeper they waded in, the more Miya started distracting Shouyou.

"Stop!" Laughed Shouyou as he batted away Miya's tickling hand, only just managing to jump over the knee-high wave that should have still been easy.

Shouyou could _fly_ when he jumped, so these measly waves should have been a piece of cake. But Miya would say something, a compliment, a joke, or would try to trip Shouyou up or make him laugh. And it was working! Which Shouyou did not want to admit, however he was having so much fun and was loving Miya's cheating, even if it meant Shouyou didn't win.

When Shouyou played Miya at his own game, paid him a compliment about how beautiful he looked in the sun, it worked way better than Shouyou expected. Miya almost tripped face-first into the water, and would have, if it wasn't for Shouyou holding onto his hand and pulling him up.

Miya called it quits after that and insisted on Shouyou holding his hand all the way back to their blanket.

Shouyou wanted to race back, too, but Sakusa told him to rest after jumping around so much.

While they drank water and ate some more food, Bokuto showed them photo's he'd taken of them jumping waves, as well as a few of him and Sakusa with the sun beaming above them.

"You're all glowing!" Shouyou said as he smiled to himself. "I like the sparkle of the sea next to you there and how it catches in your eyes," Shouyou said about… well, he wasn't sure who he was talking about anymore, as he loved every photo and wanted all of them ingrained into his mind.

"Someone's being sappy today," teased Miya as he nudged his foot against Shouyou's. There was no use in denying it, so Shouyou just smiled, accepting it for what it was.

"Can we play volleyball now?"

"Wait until our stomachs have settled, Shouyou," insisted Bokuto as he continued to eat. His stomach certainly wasn't going to settle any time soon. And apparently, neither was Shouyou's, as Miya handed him a pudding.

Once they'd packed up and everyone got in the car, Shouyou drove on to their next stop. He'd kept it a secret all day, as he had known the beach couldn't be a complete surprise, but this part could.

"Uh, Shouyou, you're going the wrong way," Bokuto said.

"No I'm not," sang Shouyou as he turned up the narrow road a few minutes away that led to rows of cabins overlooking the beach from a hill.

“What have you got planned here, Shou-kun?” Miya asked suspiciously as his finger trailed down the back of Shouyou’s neck, making him shiver.

Shouyou giggled and grinned brightly. “It’s a surprise.”

They wouldn’t have to wait long though, as Shouyou quickly hopped out of the car at the main reception building, got the keys from the receptionist, signed the paperwork and dashed back to the car. After driving the few meters to the designated cabin, Shouyou parked up the path.

“We’re here!” He announced and hurried out of the car. He excitedly ran to the door and unlocked it, and gaped at the traditional Japanese interior hidden behind the wooden slats.

“Shouyou,” Sakusa said behind him, his arms wrapped around Shouyou’s shoulders and he rested his chin on Shouyou’s head. “What is all of this?”

Wriggling around in Sakusa’s arms, Shouyou looked up at him, looked to Bokuto and Miya stood precariously by the door and smiled shyly, suddenly nervous.

“It’s for us,” Shouyou said happily, keeping his tone light and open. “If you want… we can stay the night. Because it’s not often that we get two days off from training right next to each other, so I thought it would be fun to add this to the beach trip.”

“We’re staying the night?” Bokuto asked with bright eyes and an awestruck smile.

Shouyou nodded. “And there are plenty of futons, too,” he added quickly and looked to Sakusa and Miya. “So we don’t need to share or anything- unless you want to…”

Sakusa dipped his head down and slowly kissed Shouyou’s temple. “Of course we want to. Thank you.”

“Ohh,” Shouyou sighed in relief and exhilaration, his pounding heart picking up its pace all the more as the butterflies in his stomach created a swirling storm. “I’m glad. I wasn’t sure, because you don’t want to live together, but I wanted to be able to fall asleep with all of you at night and wake up with you in the morning.”

Miya joined them, wrapping his arms over Sakusa’s shoulder and Shouyou’s waist. “Shou-kun, there’s a difference between living together and spending the night together.”

“Yeah,” nodded Shouyou in agreement.

“And!” Bokuto called out as he bearhugged all of them tightly in his strong arms. “This will be our first time sleeping together and sharing a room and stuff. You’re so sweet, Shouyou.”

Shouyou giggled and kissed each of their lips, his smile spread so wide his cheeks began to ache.

“There’s a fire pit, too, so we can have BBQ for dinner.”

“BBQ?” Miya repeated in excitement and his eyes beamed with what Shouyou would call his heart-eyes.

With full tummies and the warm fire still crackling with ember hues, Shouyou briefly closed his eyes from where he was sitting on the cushioned outdoor sofa with Miya sprawled out on his lap. Shouyou soothingly ran his fingers through Miya’s golden locks and breathed deep and slow in time with Miya’s calming breaths. Bokuto and Sakusa were sitting opposite, Bokuto’s head on Sakusa’s lap as his knees hung over the armrest.

They were peaceful and content, simply enjoying the quiet amongst the intimate atmosphere.

Shouyou knew he would have easily fallen asleep right there, but he couldn’t separate himself from the moment, from the memories they were creating even without words.

Bokuto’s fluttery laugh flitted through the air, making Shouyou’s ears perk up as he opened his resting eyes. Sakusa was running circles over Bokuto’s stomach with his long and gentle fingers, making Bokuto sigh and giggle and squirm.

“Beautiful,” whispered Shouyou, the thoughts in his head making their way out of his mouth without realising. He didn’t mind though, as he was then able to witness the faintest blush scatter across Sakusa’s cheeks as his gaze met Shouyou’s.

Miya hummed on Shouyou’s chest and mumbled sleepily, “could stare at ‘em all night.”

“ _Babe_ ,” Bokuto whined as he covered his face with his hands and peeked through his fingers.

Shouyou suddenly needed both of them with him, but he was too tired to move just yet. Thankfully, Bokuto and Sakusa could read Shouyou like a book. They stood up, stretched their arms above their heads and came over to Shouyou and Miya. Bokuto easily lifted Miya into his arms, who naturally (and without complaining) curled his arms around Bokuto’s neck. As Shouyou had been watching them, he didn’t realise Sakusa was doing the same until Shouyou’s legs were dangling over Sakusa’s arms and their faces were a breath apart.

“O-Omi-san,” Shouyou whispered, shy and overwhelmingly happy at the same time.

“I’ve got you,” Sakusa said confidently, pressed a kiss to Shouyou’s lips and followed Bokuto through the sliding balcony door.

“Let’s get you sleepy-heads to bed,” Bokuto grinned as he put Miya down at the bathroom door and Sakusa did the same with Shouyou.

Shouyou was very grateful that they’d all taken turns washing up before they had dinner, mainly to get all the sand and seawater off, and because Shouyou had wanted a pyjama BBQ. He was also lucky that the cabin provided spare pyjamas and robes, because he had forgotten to mention that when listing off what everyone needed to pack. Shouyou had loved that they all ended up matching because of it and had, of course, demanded pictures.

“You’re dribbling,” Sakusa said to Shouyou as he lazily brushed his teeth while lost in thought. He retrieved a flannel from the rack, dampened with water and wiped Shouyou's chin for him.

After he was done, Shouyou crawled to the middle of the futons they had laid out right next to each other, creating one big bed. He wanted to be in the middle, be surrounded by them all and have all their affections. Even if Shouyou knew that Bokuto often ended up on the opposite side of the bed than he fell asleep on, Shouyou would still be able to have a few minutes while falling asleep.

“Hey, sunshine,” Miya said against Shouyou’s ear as he tackled him from behind and wriggled close under the covers.

Shouyou giggled and rolled over so their noses were touching. He licked his lips and tucked his foot between Miya’s calves, getting comfy and tangled up with his hands resting on Miya’s chest.

“Don’t fall asleep yet,” warned Miya as he poked Shouyou’s sides to make him laugh and keep him awake. “You need all of us here.”

“I’m awake, I’m awake,” pleaded Shouyou, even as his eyes continued to flutter closed.

“I’m here,” Sakusa said from behind Shouyou, his arms naturally snook around Shouyou’s waist as his face pressed into Shouyou’s hair.

“Me, too,” Bokuto yawned, snuggling in behind Miya and pulling him tight to his chest.

“Hey,” Shouyou whined as a small gap formed between Shouyou and Miya.

“Oh, sorry, baby,” Bokuto chuckled in apology as he pushed Miya back and moved closer towards him.

“S’better,” Shouyou sighed, his eyes giving way to sleep as soon as he had his boyfriends around him. This may have been a one night trip, but Shouyou could pretend for the night that this was what it be like to live with together.

**//**

They’d been together for almost 8 months now. Not that Kiyoomi was counting or anything. He just liked to know how long it had been, how much time they’d had together and how much more they had to ahead.

It had been mostly smooth sailing for them, with only the odd bickering argument that was never really a problem and was solved within minutes. Their journey so far had still been a learning curve, with figuring out the way their relationship worked and how best to communicate. Nothing had been left unsolved and Kiyoomi liked it that way.

However, Hinata had gone to Brazil for the week and tension was beginning to build around them. Not because they felt like they were falling apart, but because they simply missed Hinata so much. A whole quarter of their partners was missing and nothing felt right without him there.

Miya was taking it harder than Kiyoomi and Bokuto, became more drained by the day, uncharacteristically quiet and toned down. The whole team had noticed and even though Miya tried not to let it affect their training, it showed more and more at the end of the day.

“That’s it,” Kiyoomi said after the fourth day when training was done. “You’re coming to stay with me for the rest of the week.”

“Huh?” Miya said in confusion. “What for?”

“And you,” Kiyoomi said to Bokuto whose eyes winded in surprise.

“But-” Miya began to protest.

“Don’t try to make excuses,” Kiyoomi said, taking Miya’s hand and leading him from the building. “Go home and pack a bag. Be at mine before dinner.”

Bokuto nodded in agreement, a grateful glint filled his eyes as he pecked Kiyoomi and Miya goodbye.

“Okay,” Miya sighed and nodded.

“We’re here,” Kiyoomi reminded Miya as he stroked his cheek.

Miya nodded again. “Love you,” he said as he nuzzled his lips against Kiyoomi’s palm.

Kiyoomi didn’t allow himself to think about how it would be to have Miya and Bokuto in his home for the next three days and four nights as he moved about the kitchen making dinner. His main worry was that Miya was being so dejected. Of course, Kiyoomi missed Hinata and Bokuto did too, yet they were able to handle that distance a lot easier. Hinata had been worried the day before when they’d attempted to call him, but time was so short in their time window that they couldn’t stay talking for long.

They’d all stayed over his place before, in fact, they all stayed together more often than not recently. Kiyoomi enjoyed it even though he still liked having his own private space, the idea of sharing somewhere with his boyfriends was growing more appealing. They’d made it this far already and Kiyoomi couldn’t imagine a life without them.

When Bokuto and Miya arrived together, Kiyoomi was shocked that Bokuto had a large shoulder bag and Miya had a tiny suitcase.

He put them to work right away, telling them to wash their hands and then help him make dinner. There were no complaints and as they moved around each other in the kitchen, Miya’s mood picked up and he even smiled when Bokuto tried to have a wooden spoon fight with him.

“You’re ridiculous,” Miya scoffed as he entertained Bokuto by holding his own. Kiyoomi was concerned for the spoons, but let it go, knowing he could always get more. He didn’t want Miya’s smile to fade for a second.

Once they’d finished eating and cleaning the dishes, Kiyoomi told them to go and wash up. But Miya’s eyes turned unsure and he stood silently contemplating.

“Do you want us to wash up together?” Kiyoomi asked and pressed his thumb along the frown between Miya’s eyes, easing it away. “You’ll get wrinkles.”

Miya chuckled lightly and batted Kiyoomi’s hand away. “Please,” he said in response.

“Let's go,” sang Bokuto, taking both their hands and leading them to the bathroom.

Kiyoomi quickly washed himself and got in the steaming bath to make more room, while Bokuto pampered Miya, slowly washing his hair and body. Miya pliantly moved as Bokuto lifted his arms and feet, tipped his head back when Bokuto showered off the suds and they shared a slow and adoring kiss.

With his chin propped up on his hands, Kiyoomi was unable to look away, caught up in their affections.

Once in the bath, Miya lay across Kiyoomi’s chest and rested his eyes as Kiyoomi stroked his hands gently up and down his back. And Bokuto washed in the shortest time it had ever taken him.

“Got somewhere to be?” Teased Kiyoomi when Bokuto climbed in opposite him.

“Oh, you know, just my gorgeous boyfriends in the tub,” Bokuto shrugged and pushed his wet hair back.

“Is that so,” Kiyoomi mused with a smile.

“What are you doin’ to my feet?” Miya mumbled.

“Just massaging them,” Bokuto said in an obvious manner as he lifted Miya’s foot out of the water and continued to massage it.

“You’re babyin’ me,” Miya said as a statement and not a complaint.

“We’re loving you,” Kiyoomi said to him and kissed his forehead.

And Miya couldn’t counter that.

Before their skin could prune, Kiyoomi ushered them from the bath and they all dried off. Once in their pyjamas, they crowded around Kiyoomi’s laptop and waited for Hinata’s video call.

“Shou-kun!” Miya exclaimed when it finally connected, his expression immediately lightened up when Hinata smiled on the screen.

“I miss you!” Hinata whined as he pressed his face to the camera. 

“We miss you, too, baby,” Bokuto said in an equally whining tone.

“Are you having fun?” Asked Kiyoomi, unable to prevent himself from smiling.

“Yes!” Hinata nodded and clapped his hands together. “Seeing everyone has been great. And I’ve managed to get back on the sand again too. Just for fun though! Promise I’m not overworking myself.”

“Sounds amazing, Shouyou,” Bokuto said. “And you’ve already got a tan.”

“Oh yeah,” Hinata said in realisation as he looked at his arms. “I’ve been outside a lot, so that will be why.”

“Did you have that meeting with the coach?” Asked Kiyoomi, knowing they’d all been thinking about it.

Hinata nodded. “Yeah, I’ve met him a few times now. My old coach is really impressed with all the progress I’ve made in Japan and how I’ve settled into the team.”

“What does that mean for you?” Miya asked in a small voice.

Kiyoomi threaded his fingers into Miya’s hand and kissed his knuckles.

Hinata hummed as his eyes followed their interaction. “Nothing is final yet, we’re still discussing… options and stuff.”

Miya’s shoulders visibly slumped and Hinata’s eyes widened in panic.

“Atsumu,” he said worriedly. “This isn’t anything happening soon. It’s all future talk. Please don’t worry, I’m coming back in a few days.”

“I know,” Miya forced a smile that wasn’t fooling anyone.

“Tsum-Tsum has been like this since you left,” Bokuto said to Hinata and Miya elbowed Bokuto’s side. “It’s true,” Bokuto continued unaffected.

“I can’t help missing you,” Miya said in frustration.

“Tsumu,” Hinata said sadly, the need to comfort Miya clear in his expression.

It must have been more difficult for Hinata to be away from the three of them than it was for them to not have him. They still had each other to be comforted by but Hinata was on his own.

“And Shouyou,” Bokuto said cheerily, the mood picking up instantly. “You better be prepared when you get home, because Tsumu-Tsumu won’t let us have any sex without you.”

“B-Bokkun,” Miya scolded as his face flushed red.

Hinata laughed through the screen and leant forward into his hands. “I’m sure something can be arranged, Koutarou,” Hinata sang as he bit his poking out tongue in a deliberate attempt at a smoulder.

“I need something now, Shouyou,” Bokuto said dramatically as he fanned his face.

“It’s not been _that_ long,” Miya said in defence as he folded his arms across his chest and pouted.

“But, baby,” purred Bokuto, getting close to Miya’s sensitive neck (they all knew it was his weak spot). “I have to look at my sexy boyfriend _all_ day and you know I just want to-”

Miya shoved his hands over Bokuto’s mouth so he couldn’t continue. His whole face was beet red as his expression battled his emotions.

"I need Shouyou there," Miya explained, giving up all false pretence of being okay.

"And you don't need us?" Bokuto continued to tease, clearly enjoying himself while trying to cheer Miya up.

"I need all of you!" Miya pouted and folded his arms across his chest once again.

"But we do stuff separately all the time and you're okay with that," Bokuto said more softly and tilted his head to peer up at Miya.

"Yeah, when Shou-kun's still nearby and not in another country."

"Tsum-Tsum," Hinata purred through the screen, a wide grin on his face as his eyes sparkled mischievously. "I'm here now."

Miya opened and closed his mouth, a deeper blush rising to his ears as he glanced at Bokuto and Kiyoomi in turn.

Kiyoomi circled his hands around Miya's waist and dipped down to kiss his nape. "You've got Shouyou's full attention, Atsumu," Kiyoomi whispered into Miya's delicate skin.

Miya tipped his head to the side and let out a sigh, his brow un-furrowed and he looked to Hinata. "Is it okay?"

"Please!" Hinata nodded his head eagerly and leant closer towards the screen.

Without warning, Bokuto tugged at Kiyoomi's arms so both he and Miya fell into Bokuto's chest.

"Let's give our sunshine a show then," he smirked in a challenge.

And what a show it was.

**//**

While waiting at the airport for Hinata to arrive back, Kiyoomi had to hold Miya’s hand to stop him from rushing in. Bokuto was bouncing on his heels beside them at the back of the terminal, the three of them were trying to be discreet, and thankfully, Hinata had chosen an early flight. So early that he was due to land before sunrise.

“How long now?” Miya asked for the fourth time in a minute.

Kiyoomi squeezed his hand and gave him a patient stare. “Still ten minutes.”

“This is the longest ten minutes of my _life_ ,” he groaned dramatically and pressed his forehead on Kiyoomi’s shoulder. 

Bokuto snorted and squeezed Miya’s waist. “We know that’s not true,” he whispered.

Miya groaned again as the tips of his ears reddened. “Omi-Omi,” he whined, shuffling around Kiyoomi’s back to hide from Bokuto. “Tell him to stop.”

“Omi-Omi,” Bokuto mimicked as he popped his head over Kiyoomi’s shoulders. “Tell Tsumu to stop being cute.”

While Miya was out of site, Kiyoomi felt his face press against his back and Bokuto chuckled. Kiyoomi often wondered how they still got away with so much while they were supposed to be grown men.

“I’ll tell Shouyou on both of you,” Kiyoomi said, trying his best not to smile. Even if they all knew Hinata loved it when they all teased and messed around this way (especially when the play-fighting started), Kiyoomi knew they would be distracted by their boyfriend's name.

“Shit, hide,” Bokuto said, also attempting to hide behind Kiyoomi.

“You’re too big, get out,” Miya complained with a laugh, shoving Bokuto away.

While they continued to bicker over who got to hide behind Kiyoomi, they missed their approaching sunshine, who was grinning widely and glowing with his now tanned and freckled skin.

He looked side to side at Bokuto and Miya now shoving at each other to try and pick the other up.

Kiyoomi sighed fondly and walked to Hinata, cupped Hinata’s grinning cheeks in his large hands and said, “I missed you.”

“I love you,” Hinata giggled with watery and tired eyes.

“Let’s get you home-” Kiyoomi began to say, but was interrupted by Miya and Bokuto rushing over and crowding around Hinata so he was at the centre of them.

“Shouyou!”

“Shou-kun!”

“Hey,” Hinata said softly.

“He’s tired, let's go home,” Kiyoomi said, pressing a quick kiss to Hinata’s head and taking his bag from him as Bokuto took his suitcase.

Miya hooked his arm over Hinata’s shoulder and nuzzled his face against Hinata’s cheek.

They piled into Kozume’s car, who had offered to pick Hinata up with them. And most likely because he missed Hinata, too, but Kiyoomi wasn’t sure if Kozume would admit that.

“ _Kenma_ ,” Hinata sang and yawned as he reached forward to hug his friend and Kozume stroked his head.

“Did you have fun?” Kozume asked with a smile.

Hinata nodded with a hum and buckled his seatbelt in the middle of Kiyoomi and Miya in the back. “The weather was great and my friends made me so much delicious food.”

“You got the recipes, right?” Asked Bokuto excitedly.

“Yeah,” Hinata said. “And they showed me what to do so I can teach you and then it will be tasty when you make it.”

“Me, too,” Kozume said to Bokuto.

“I always cook for you at game night,” Bokuto laughed, attempting to reach out and ruffle Kozume’s head, but Kozume swatted him away.

“That’s because Keiji and Kuro banned take-out,” Kozume said with a slump.

“Koutarou’s food tastes way better, though, right?” Miya said, earning a pretty smile from Koutarou that no doubt Miya knew he would get.

Kozume hummed in agreement.

Kiyoomi leant his head on Hinata’s shoulder for the remainder of the ride, while Hinata stroked Kiyoomi’s hair with one hand, and traced patterns on Miya’s palm with the other.

When they arrived at Kiyoomi’s, Bokuto had to carry Hinata out of the car, cradled him to his chest as he drifted back to sleep.

“Thank’s Kenma,” Bokuto said brightly. “We’ll get some onigiri from Osamu for you.”

“I’ll tell him to make an extra big one,” Miya nodded with a smile.

“No problem,” Kozume chuckled with his hands stuffed in his pockets. “Don’t tell Keiji, though. You know he’ll try and steal them from me.”

“Oh you don’t need to worry ‘bout that,” hummed Miya with a mischievous glint in his eye. “I heard he gets ‘em straight from the source,” he added with a wink, most likely meaning his brother.

“That’s very interesting,” Kozume grinned, appearing more menacing than Kiyoomi ever thought he would.

“You’re not supposed to say!” Bokuto scolded in a whisper.

“He knows about us,” countered Miya, sticking his tongue out.

“Doesn’t everyone know about us?” Kiyoomi pointed out.

“Well, yeah,” mused Miya. “But only friends and family.”

“We’ve got a lot of friends and family,” laughed Bokuto.

“I’ll be waiting for that onigiri then,” Kozume said as he waved goodbye and returned to his car.

“Your brother is going to kill you,” Kiyoomi said Miya as he patted his back.

“That’s okay,” sighed Miya, completely unfazed. “I’ve got three boyfriends to protect me.”

“How about you open the door first?” Bokuto chuckled where he stood waiting.

Kiyoomi kissed him on his way to the door, helped Bokuto take his shoes off without putting Hinata down and moved the cushions on the sofa for Hinata to sleep.

“Should we wake him so he can go shower?” Miya asked as he crouched down beside Hinata’s sleeping form.

“It’s okay,” Kiyoomi said. “He can wash when he wakes up.”

“I’ll make us some breakfast,” Bokuto said, pressing a kiss to Hinata’s forehead and going to the kitchen.

“Come here,” Miya said to Kiyoomi and patted his lap. Yuki wondered over instead and plonked herself right where Miya had been patting. “Oh.”

Kiyoomi smiled and joined him anyway, tucking his legs up over Miya’s knees as he leant against his side.

“Someone’s getting used to you being here,” mused Kiyoomi while scratching Yuki’s ears. At that point, Kiyoomi wasn’t sure if he was referring to himself or his cat.

Kiyoomi scratched under Miya’s chin as well, who chuckled and shook his head at the silliness.

“Pretty, kitten,” Kiyoomi said very seriously, even as he smiled.

Miya shook his head and pressed their foreheads together. “Love you.”

Kiyoomi pressed their lips together and pulled Miya closer, carded his fingers through Miya’s soft hair and rested his hand at his nape. Smiling into the kiss, Miya tilted his head and stroked the pads of his fingers over the apples of Kiyoomi’s cheeks.

“I love you too,” Kiyoomi managed to mumble as Miya refused to let him retreat. Kiyoomi loved it when Miya kissed him like this, all soft and adoring, a gentle caress of petal wings that are delicate and should be treated carefully, be treasured and cherished. Kiyoomi certainly felt that way.

When Kiyoomi opened his eyes, Bokuto was sitting beside Miya, tickling Yuki’s tummy as she rolled over on Miya’s thighs.

“Are your daddies not paying attention to you?” He cooed at her, receiving a meow in response. “Don’t worry, daddy Kou hasn’t forgotten about you.”

Kiyoomi froze. What Bokuto was saying, what he was implying with his casual words, meant so much more than he knew.

“Omi?” Miya questioned in worry, having felt the shift in Kiyoomi’s body.

Kiyoomi nodded, licked his lips, suddenly nervous as his stomach swirled in… was he excited? Kiyoomi couldn’t place the feeling but he certainly liked it.

“It’s just…” he huffed out a laugh and joined Bokuto in stroking Yuki’s ears. Looking over at Hinata sleeping, Kiyoomi nodded to himself. “You’ve been here most of the week. How am I going to get used to you not being here anymore?”

Bokuto paused, twisted his mouth around in thought and also looked at each of them. “Shall we try?”

“Try livin’ together?” Asked Miya in confirmation of what was being suggested.

“Yes,” Kiyoomi said, in response to them both. “I know I was the most reluctant and like to have my own space where everything is how I want it to be.”

“But?” Encouraged Miya with hopeful eyes.

“We could try it out?” Kiyoomi said, unsure how it would work.

“Like staying over on weekends?” Bokuto suggested. “Someone else's place each week? Or maybe longer than a weekend?”

Miya nodded. “That could work. And after a few months, if we get used to it or can’t bear to be apart, we should… move in?”

Kiyoomi nodded, a content wave washing over him as he settled with the idea, contemplating how it would be to have his boyfriends there all the time. There were definitely more pros than cons, even more so now that they’d been together for closer to a year. They could already cope with seeing each other every day at practice, and even after, they couldn’t wait to have dinner together, to curl up on the sofa and watch a cheesy film, or be taken to some mysterious place that Bokuto called a date.

So that’s what they did. They stayed at Kiyoomi’s for a few more days while Hinata got over jetlag, then they all went to Bokuto’s (including Yuki, who was unfazed by the move once she’d scented the place and found a cosy spot at the centre of Hinata’s bed). Hinata didn’t appear to notice what was happening, as it was so similar to how they’d been before he visited Brazil. The only difference now, was that they stayed a few days more. Having decided that Atsumu’s place was too small for them all to fit for a number of days, they moved between Kiyoomi and Bokuto’s, only occasionally returning to their own places if they needed something, or were meeting someone.

While at Kiyoomi’s once again, Miya came in with a bag of Onigiri and handed them out to each of them while they crowded around the coffee table. Bokuto had found one of Kiyoomi’s old puzzles and they quickly became invested in fitting together the thousands of pieces. Komori had gifted it to him a few years back and they had completed it together. Kiyoomi was glad it had been a while, as he couldn’t remember where the pieces went, making it more fun.

Miya wriggled his way into Shouyou’s lap, appearing not to care that it limited Shouyou’s vision of the puzzle.

Kiyoomi decided that now was the moment to reveal to Hinata what they’d been keeping from him. Even if it wasn’t deliberate, they had all agreed that Hinata would like to be surprised with the idea, more so considering that he had wanted them all to live together for many months now.

Having Hinata consider them all so much had eased Kiyoomi’s worries, made him more comfortable, in fact, at the idea of living with them. There was no pressure, simply love and his boyfriends wanting all of each other's time. Of course, they didn’t spend every waking moment together as they had their own lives, friends and families, their own enjoyments outside of volleyball. But living together would solve those few days in between when they might not have seen each other.

Getting his laptop from the kitchen, Kiyoomi opened it up and headed to the tabbed web-pages that showed the listings of apartments and small townhouses that would fit them all.

“Now?” Bokuto asked, picking up on what Kiyoomi was doing.

“That’s okay?” Asked Kiyoomi.

Bokuto nodded and Miya said, “yes! Hurry up, please.”

Kiyoomi smiled and handed the laptop to Hinata who was sitting wide-eyed and confused.

“What’s this?” He asked, looking at the screen in awe. “Is it…” he trailed off, his mouth popping open as he tried to form words but couldn’t, his eyes flitting to each of them questioningly.

“Shou-kun,” Miya cooed as he moved to the side so Hinata could fully sit up. “Didn’t you notice us _living_ between Bokkun and Omi’s?”

Hinata paused, blinked in thought and gasped. “Is that what was happening?” He asked in shocked amazement. “I just thought- thought we were spending more time together. I didn’t think-” he pushed his hands into his hair and shook his head. After taking a few deep breaths, he nodded, and tears fell from his blinking eyes.

“Shouyou,” Kiyoomi said quickly, automatically moving closer to him to wipe the warm tears from his cheeks.

Miya wrapped his arms around Shouyou’s waist while Bokuto manoeuvred to sit opposite and held Hinata’s hands.

“I’m happy,” sniffed Shouyou, smiling as he cried. “You want to live together. And not just move in, but g-get a home of our own. It’s not even been a year.” He laughed at the end and leaned into Kioomi’s touch, his chest stuttering as he breathed through his tears.

“It’s closer to a year than not,” Miya said, kissing Shouyou’s cheek.

“We want to have somewhere that’s ours,” Bokuto added softly, his thumbs moving soothingly over the back of Hinata’s hands and wrists. “Not my place and your place and another place, just _home_.”

That made Hinata cry even harder, thick tears poured down his cheeks and he sobbed against Kiyoomi’s Shoulder.

“Will you help us pick where to go?” Kiyoomi whispered to him while Miya rubbed his hand up and down Hinata’s back.

“P-please,” he nodded.

Bokuto passed him a tissue and managed to crawl between Hinata’s legs and lie across his thighs. Hinata smiled and ran his hands through Bokuto’s hair, rhythmically pushing back the strands.

**//**

They quickly settled on a modern-build house, with optimised spaces and a reasonable sized garden - there wasn’t enough room for volleyball, but enough for them to eat outside and have people around. Bokuto had fallen in love with the balcony at the back of the house, Sakusa had liked the spare rooms and larger living space, Hinata liked how the stairs curled round and looked over the living room. And Atsumu? He loved having a bedroom big enough to stand up in without bumping his head on the roof. As well having a home with his boyfriends, of course.

Yuki had been more nervous about this house than from the times she went back and forth from Sakusa’s and Bokuto’s, and she spent the first few days getting her scent around and sleeping in their room with them. Once she found new hiding corners and sunny spots from the large windows, she happily spent her time there. Atsumu only knew this because she so often waited for him to sit down so she could sleep on his lap, rather than wherever she’d been. Sakusa wasn’t impressed that she had a new favourite.

Which was where Atsumu currently was, lying on a sunspot on the floor, Yuki on his chest as he rested his eyes and felt the cool breeze on his cheeks that was blowing through the open sliding doors that lead into the back garden.

Hinata and Bokuto were having a press-up competition for some reason - not that Atsumu was complaining, as they’d both removed their t-shirts ten minutes ago.

With the luxury of a garden, Sakusa had taken to planting some flowers, which he wanted to look perfect before everyone arrived. Everyone being all their friends who they had invited for their house-warming. Friends only, because although their house was big enough for the four of them, it wasn’t big enough for family, too. They’d spent the morning preparing food, which only needed to be heated once everyone came.

Atsumu was enjoying being lazy for the first time since they moved here a week ago, as moving them all in hadn’t been easy. Once they had all their belongings here, they had to decide where to put them all - which, thankfully, was why they had wanted a whole spare room for their wardrobe. Although Hinata and Bokuto had taken the built-in cupboards, Sakusa and Atsumu had needed more space, because they apparently had more clothes. Atsumu knew he had a large abundance of clothes he didn’t need but hadn’t expected the same of Sakusa. So the room that was supposed to be a small office ended up being fitted with built-in wardrobes with smart storage and such. It had been fun watching Bokuto and Sakusa build it as well, even if they struggled along the way, Atsumu had kept the snacks and drinks coming.

Then came the issue of what furniture to keep, sell or donate, what they could take from their apartments or what needed to stay.

Sakusa had the biggest sofa, while Bokuto’s coffee table was the largest and Atsumu’s T.V had the best quality. Hinata, lucky for him, didn’t have any such furniture.

Upon Hinata’s request though, they had bought a new bed that was big enough for them all.

“One more!” Hinata said through gritted teeth as sweat dripped off his nose and down his stretched out arms.

“I can do ten more!” Bokuto said as a challenge.

“You can both stop now or you'll be too tired to entertain our guests,” Sakusa said to them, throwing them their towels without arguments.

“Aw, okay, babe,” Bokuto sighed and flopped onto the grass, his broad chest heaving and glistening from the sun with each breath.

Hinata managed to move the small space to collapse on Bokuto’s sweaty chest, and suddenly, Atsumu was feeling pretty hot himself.

“Please go and shower,” Atsumu pleaded with them, knowing they definitely didn’t have enough time for what naughty thoughts were filling Atsumu’s mind.

“You’d rather we stayed like this, though,” teased Hinata, reading what was written so clearly over Atsumu’s face.

The doorbell rang, saving Atsumu from spontaneous (or not so spontaneous) combustion.

He opened the door to his brother who had Akaashi Keiji with him. Atsumu grinned and wriggled his eyebrows, only to be elbowed in the stomach as Osamu entered without permission.

“Excuse me,” Akaashi said politely as he bowed his head in greeting to Atsumu and removed his shoes.

“Please put them on the-” Atsumu started to say, but Akaashi was already putting his shoes on the rack, so Osamu followed suit.

Atsumu was honestly not that bothered, but he knew Sakusa would be if the genkan was a mess of shoes.

“We’re all outside,” Atsumu said and led them through the hallway, into the open planned living space and kitchen, that left enough space to still be two rooms in one. They’d moved their dining table to the garden for the evening, that would otherwise be separating the two spaces.

“Keiji!” Bokuto and Hinata both shouted out together, managing to slip off each other's sweaty chests in their surprise.

“Thought you were coming with Tetsu and Kenma,” Bokuto said as he smiled and jogged to them. His eyes then landed on Osamu who was scratching the back of his head awkwardly. “Ohh,” Bokuto grinned wider, picking up on what had happened here. “His onigiri is that good?” Bokuto asked, which definitely sounded like a euphemism.

“Kou, please,” Atsumu said with a grimace, not wanting to imagine his brother in any such situation.

“Did you bring some?” Hinata asked Osamu, noticing the large paper bag in his hand.

Osamu looked relieved for the conversation change and nodded. “It should be enough.”

“Don’t worry,” Hinata nodded, taking the bag. “I won’t let Kenma or Koutarou eat it all. Or Kageyama. Or-”

“Yeah, he gets it,” Atsumu chuckled, knowing that list would be as long as his arm. “Want a drink?” He asked while poking Osamu’s arm.

“Sure, Keiji-san?”

“ _Keiji-san?”_ Bokuto whispered to himself, practically glowing with excitement as Akaashi’s cheeks turned pink and he avoided Bokuto’s gaze.

“Please,” Akaashi nodded while ignoring Bokuto.

Atsumu practically dragged his brother to the kitchen, whose expression was part annoyed and part sheepish.

“Take it he said yes then,” Atsumu said to him.

Osamu shrugged. “Guess so.”

Atsumu hummed and patted Osamu’s back with a grin. “Congrats, bro!”

“Yeah, yeah,” Osamu shrugged him off as he smiled. “Kita gave me that final push, y’know. Jus’ told me to go for it.”

“And it paid off,” grinned Atsumu as he made some tea. “Koutarou says Akaashi is great. They’re best friends y'know.”

Osamu squinted at Atsumu. “Our… boyfriends are best friends?”

Atsumu nodded. “Mhm. Apparently Koutarou and Akaashi adopted Shouyou in highschool and did extra training with him. They have some great stories.”

“Adopted?” Osamu questioned in confusion.

“Not literally,” Atsumu said while waving his hand, but Osamu gave him a look that said he had already guessed that much. “Their schools did training camps together and that’s where they met. We’ll have to go on a double date with them.”

Osamu hummed. “If Keiji-san agrees. But it won’t exactly be a _double_ date, will it?”

“It can be,” shrugged Atsumu. “Omi and Shouyou won’t mind.”

Osamu gave a small smile and patted Atsumu on the back before suddenly pulling him closer and digging his knuckles into Atsumu’s head.

“Samu!” Atsumu yelled, trying to shove his brother away and knocking over one of Sakusa’s plants in the process. “ _Shit_.”

Osamu quickly stopped and they both watched as the pot wobbled in a swivel before spilling on the floor with a crack.

“That… is Omi’s plant,” Atsumu said slowly as his face drained of colour.

“Well,” Osamu said with finality. “It was good knowin’ you, bro.”

Sakusa was not impressed, but also not mad. Atsumu promised to get him a new pot and apologised profusely.

“It’s fine, Atsumu,” Sakusa said as he helped Atsumu clean up the broken pieces. “It’s just a pot. Are you okay?”

“Huh? Me?” Atsumu frowned in confusion.

“You didn’t cut yourself or get hurt?” Sakusa grasped Atsumu’s hands and checked them over, and Atsumu gulped, feeling as his heart fell for Sakusa even more - if that was even possible.

“I’m okay,” Atsumu said softly, allowing Sakusa to check him over anyway. “We just knocked it. We were messin’ around.”

Sakusa hummed and kissed Atsumu’s knuckles.

“ _Omi_ ,” Atsumu groaned, already feeling his cheeks blush.

With a smug smile, Sakusa pulled Atsumu to standing. “Let’s wash our hands.”

“‘Kay,” Atsumu said, smiling as they shared the kitchen sink.

“So your brother is with Akaashi now?” Sakusa asked.

“Yup,” nodded Atsumu. “They met at one of our games apparently.”

“How romantic,” chuckled Sakusa as he lathered his soaped hands into Atsumu’s, apparently wanting to wash his hands for him. Atsumu let him, of course.

“It’ll be busy later,” Atsumu mused and leant his head on Sakusa’s shoulder.

“Does that bother you?”

“No, no,” Atsumu said. “I’m more worried ‘bout you, Omi.”

Sakusa smiled and wiped a soap sud on Atsumu’s nose. “I’ve got three boyfriends. This is our home. I think I’ll be okay. Thank you anyway,” he added, pressing a tender kiss to Atsumu’s lips.

They returned back outside where Akaashi and Osamu were sitting next to each on the stone patio step, their shoulders touching as they sipped their tea.

“Where’s Shouyou and Koutarou?” Atsumu asked as he joined them, sitting down on the grass with his legs crossed.

“They went to shower,” Akaashi said.

“Ah,” Atsumu nodded, hiding his face in his tea as he knew what it meant when they both went to shower at the same time.

“I’ll tell them to hurry up,” Sakusa said, making Atsumu splutter in his tea.

“Aran is coming later, right?” Osamu asked.

Atsumu nodded, wiped his mouth with his hand and grinned. “Yeah, he wasn’t getting out of this one.”

Yuki emerged from wherever she’d been hiding and strutted up to Atsumu, nudging at his hand so he made room on his lap.

“Someone’s being needy today,” Atsumu said to her and stroked her tummy when she demanded so by rolling onto her back.

“This is?” Osamu asked, moving closer to him.

“Yuki,” Atsumu said. “She’s technically Omi’s, but I’m her favourite now.”

Akaashi chuckled. “Koutarou-san talks about her a lot.”

“Oh yeah, he has a whole folder with pictures of her on his phone.”

“He’s shown me many times,” Akaashi said with a smile, and Atsumu believed him from his tone.

The doorbell rang again, so Atsumu excused himself, now wondering why Sakusa was taking so long, too.

At the door were Hinata’s friends from high school, including Kageyama. Atsumu grinned as he narrowed his eyes, Kageyama did the same, looking quite frightening. The blonde glasses guy that Atsumu assumed was Tsukishima sighed and shook his head.

“Please don’t cause trouble,” he said to Kageyama, already sounding exasperated.

“Tsukki!” Came a yell from Bokuto as he bounded down the stairs and ran full force at Tsukishima. He hugged him and smiled widely, and Tsukishima surprisingly didn’t object, though he didn’t hug back. “Yacchan, Yamaguchi,” Bokuto continued to sing, deciding to bow to them rather than suffocate them like Tsukishima. “Come in, come in. You too Kageyama.” Bokuto patted Kageyama's back and encouraged them all in.

Atsumu stepped out of the way and closed the door behind them.

“You’re supposed to welcome them in,” Bokuto scolded him quietly. Atsumu stuck his tongue out and Bokuto raised his browns as his expression turned mischievous.

Before Atsumu could find out what Bokuto was planning, he jumped away and led everyone to the garden, offering drinks on the way.

Akaashi was also pleased to see Tsukishima, as he smiled and they bowed their heads to each other happily. Was Tsukishima important to them? Atsumu couldn’t remember if Bokuto had spoken about him before. Shouyou had, but Shouyou always talked about his friends. Atsumu _did_ know that he was in a relationship with Hitoka and Yamaguchi, and they had been the ones to explain to Hinata that a bigger relationship was possible. Atsumu was glad for that, at least.

Speaking of Hinata, or, _thinking_ of him at least, as Atsumu did so often. His boyfriend finally emerged from upstairs, hair lightly styled and dressed in a loose white shirt with a wide collar, black polka dot pattern. It was tucked into some slim black jeans and Atsumu gulped at the sight, so rare as it was for Hinata to dress smart.

“Whoa,” Atsumu breathed out and took Hinata’s hand as he shyly approached Atsumu. Atsumu greeted him with a smile, spun Hinata around so he could see all of him and nodded. “You look beautiful, Shou-kun.”

“You think so?” Hinata asked, not unsure or unconfident, but simply seeking Atsumu’s compliments.

Atsumu hummed. “You should dress like this more often.”

Hinata giggled as his cheeks blushed happily. “And steal Omi’s style?”

“Ah,” Atsumu grinned and nodded. “Did he dress you by any chance?”

“He may have helped me a tiny bit,” Hinata said brightly. “And! We have one for you, too.”

“A what for me?”

“A shirt! Come on,” Hinata said in a rush, dragging Atsumu through the kitchen and up the twisting stairs. He ushered Atsumu into their make-shift walk-in wardrobe, and lying on the centre ottoman was a white shirt, similar to Hinata’s, but with black stripes running down.

“For me?” Atsumu asked in confusion, liking the shirt, but also wondering what was wrong with the one he already had on.

“Then we’ll all match,” Hinata explained softly, his expression hopeful.

“What are Omi and Kou wearin’?”

“Their shirts are the same, but opposite colours. Omi in black with white stripes and Koutarou in black with white spots.”

“When did you all change? And why didn’t I know ‘bout this?” Atsumu scratched his head in confusion but began to change his shirt anyway.

“I went with Omi yesterday. I told him my idea and he helped me pick out the shirts.”

Atsumu hummed and started doing up the buttons, only for Hinata to push his hands away as he fastened the buttons for him.

“C’mere,” muttered Atsumu when Hinata was done. He tipped Hinata’s chin up and softly kissed his lips, circled his arm around Hinata’s waist and swayed him a little side to side. “You’re so good to us, Shou-kun.”

Hinata giggled and pulled Atsumu back down again, running his fingers through Atsumu’s hair and licking at Atsumu’s lips. “Tsumu,” he purred in that way that Atsumu knew he was going to do whatever Hinata suggested. “We have a few spare minutes.”

Atsumu groaned and tipped his head back, which only encouraged Hinata further as he peppered kisses down Atsumu’s jaw and along his sensitive neck.

“Didn’t you just get done with Koutarou?”

“Hmm,” Hinata smiled and pushed Atsumu onto the circle ottoman, proceeding to crawl onto Atsumu’s lap. “Guess I can’t get enough of you all today.”

“All? You been with Omi, too?”

Hinata kissed Atsumu’s ear and whispered, “why do you think he took so long telling me and Koutarou to hurry up?”

“ _Fuck_ ,” Atsumu cursed, running his hands over Hinata’s thighs. “We gotta be quick, ‘kay?”

Hinata beamed as he hurriedly nodded and started unbuttoning Atsumu’s shirt again.

“Aww, you’re matching,” Yamaguchi said to Hinata as he peered around and looked at them all.

“It was my idea!” Hinata said excited and proud as he swung Atsumu’s hand.

“Should we do that, too?” Hitoka asked, looking excited while Tsukishima grimaced.

“You should,” encouraged Hinata with an enthusiastic nod. “Couples clothes are getting so popular now.”

“Tsum-Tsum, Shouyou,” Bokuto sang, handing Atsumu and Hinata a drink. “Tetsu and Kenma arrived while you were getting changed.”

“They did?” Hinata asked excitedly. “I’ll go find them!” He said quickly as he dashed off in search, almost spilling his drink on the way.

“Did you see Tetsurou yet, Tsukki?” Bokuto asked.

Tsukishima nodded. “Avoiding him didn’t work very well.”

Bokuto laughed loudly and patted Tsukishima’s arm. “We’ll all have to meet up! Try and get our team together.”

“What team is this?” Atsumu asked.

“Oh! From our summer training camp in high school. We did our own training every day and taught our baby crows new tricks.”

Tsukishima sighed and said, “he means Hinata and I. We practised with Bokuto, Kuroo and Akaashi and Haiba.”

“He’s a model now, y’know,” Bokuto nodded, sounding very pleased.

“Ah, the adoption story,” Atsumu said with revelation.

“Yeah, that one!” Nodded Bokuto while Tsukishima sighed, though was unsurprised.

“We’re still waiting for you on the Japan team, Tsukki,” Bokuto said with hope. “We know you’ll join us in no time.”

Tsukishima gave a small smile. “I appreciate it.”

“He’s right, Kei,” Yamaguchi agreed and Hitoka nodded.

“Tsumu!” Osamu called out from the patio doors and waved him over.

“Excuse me,” Atsumu said with a smile, squeezed Bokuto’s arm and walked over to his brother.

“Doorbell was ringin’” Osamu said, pointing to the entrance hall.

“You could’ve answered it,” Atsumu said as he shook his head, going to the front door anyway.

“Hi,” Ojiro Aran grinned from the other side, waving his hand in greeting to them.

Atsumu smiled and pulled Ojiro in, gave him a man hug and patted his back. “Come in, come in,” he said.

Osamu did the same and they guided Ojiro into the kitchen to get a drink.

“Still can’t believe you’re the one settling down,” Ojiro said in disbelief.

“I’m offended,” Atsumu gasped, grasping his chest dramatically.

“He’s just lucky his men are all married to their career, too,” Osamu said as he poked Atsumu’s cheek.

“That’s true,” Ojiro laughed and raised his drink.

“Isn’t _your_ man also married to his job?” Atsumu said to Osamu with a wide grin, knowing he’d put his foot in it without caring.

“Your what?” Ojiro said, turning his look of surprise to Osamu.

Osamu elbowed Atsumu and sighed with a nod. “Yeah. He’s around here somewhere. It only became official the other day.”

“Akaashi is best friends with Koutarou, too,” added Atsumu, further stirring the pot.

Ojiro laughed loudly and lightly punched Osamu’s arm. “How’d you manage that one?”

“Not intentionally that’s for sure,” Osamu said with a slight smile. “He was Bokuto’s setter in high school. Could’ve made it big, too, but he didn’t pursue it.”

“You think so?” Atsumu asked in contemplation, finding it hard to imagine anyone setting for Bokuto other than himself.

“Have I met him before?” Ojiro asked.

“Probably in high school,” Osamu nodded. “Or in passin’ at least.”

“There he is, with Kou and Kozume,” Atsumu said, pointing over to them and getting an excited wave from Bokuto in return, who decided to drag both Kozume and Akaashi over to them.

“Hey, hey!” Bokuto greeted Ojiro, taking his hand and patting his shoulder. “This is Kozume and Akaashi,” Bokuto introduced.

They bowed their heads in greeting and Akaashi stood a little closer to Osamu.

“Nice to meet you,” Ojiro said.

“Shouyou wants to do a speech soon,” Bokuto said matter of factly.

“Is everyone here?” Atsumu asked, rather than thinking too much about that statement.

Bokuto nodded. “Nearly everyone.”

“Where’s Omi?”

“With Komori outside,” Bokuto said more softly, noticing Atsumu’s slightly worried tone.

Atsumu nodded.

“When’s the food getting served?” Kozume asked Bokuto.

“Real soon,” Bokuto laughed. “But if you’re hungry, you know where the kitchen is.”

Kozume rolled his eyes with a smile.

“There’s some onigiri in there, too,” Atsumu whispered to him, pointing to the brown paper bag on the counter.

“Don’t eat it all,” Akaashi said to Kozume who was already walking in that direction with an evil grin.

Osamu elbowed Atsumu’s side and glared at him in warning. So Atsumu didn’t say that Akaashi could get as much as he wanted whenever he wanted now that Osamu was his boyfriend. Which Atsumu didn’t doubt was the case, as Osamu loved feeding others as much as Bokuto did.

“Oh!” Bokuto gasped suddenly, “just excuse us a sec’,” he said, taking Atsumu’s hand and guiding him to the bottom of the stairs, out of eye and earshot of others.

“What is it?” Atsumu asked, unsure if he should be worried or not.

Bokuto hummed and grinned mischievously, then bent down and pecked Atsumu’s lips. “Just wanted to kiss you.”

Atsumu shook his head with a fond laugh and smiled widely. “C’mere then,” he said, grasping Bokuto’s nape and guiding him back to his lips.

“Love you,” Bokuto purred, winding his arms around Atsumu’s waist and holding him close.

“Such a sap,” Atsumu chuckled, stroking Bokuto’s cheek and pressing their foreheads together. “I love you.”

“Tsum-Tsum,” Bokuto said, not because he wanted something, just because he liked saying their names to them. Atsumu had noticed that a lot more recently, and even more so since being in their house that week.

Atsumu rested his head on Bokuto’s shoulder and hugged him close. Relaxing into the simple moment and taking a breath away from the party.

“We’re in for a rough night,” Bokuto whispered happily.

“Hm?” Atsumu frowned as he trailed patterns over Bokuto’s collar bone that was sticking out from his shirt.

“Did Shouyou get you yet?” Bokuto asked with a smirk.

Atsumu laughed and stuck his tongue between his teeth. “You bet he did. Used changin’ my shirt as an excuse.”

“Might have been my fault,” Bokuto said slowly. “I was talking about you and Omi in the shower, then Shouyou brought Omi in when he came to check on us.”

Atsumu blushed and groaned against Bokuto’s neck. “Why’re you all so good with words?”

“You like that, though,” Bokuto pointed out with that gravely tone. “Don’t think we didn’t notice.”

Atsumu’s stomach did a flip and he shook his head quickly to snap himself out of the daze. “Save it for later then. Maybe it’s time I got payback.”

“Oho?” Bokuto raised his eyebrows in excitement. “I like the sound of that.”

A deliberate cough made them jump and they looked up from where they'd ended up sitting on the stairs to meet Sakusa's gaze. “Having fun hiding here?”

“We’re not hidin’,” Atsumu tried to say, but they all knew they had been.

“Shouyou wants to do that speech now,” Sakusa said, not looking too impressed about it.

“Let’s get it over with then,” Atsumu said, pulling Bokuto up, only to be dragged back down.

“Five more minutes?” Bokuto asked while fluttering his eyelashes.

“You do know that doesn’t work on Omi?” Atsumu said, knowing full well that it worked on him and Hinata only.

Sakusa folded his arms across his chest and sighed. “Two minutes.”

Atsumu gasped and pulled Sakusa down too, wrapped his arms around his neck and smiled.

“Now who’s a sap,” Bokuto teased, poking Atsumu’s sides and making him yelp and squirm.

“This won’t take long!” Hinata said to everyone once they’d gathered on the patio outside.

Atsumu was standing beside Hinta in the middle, with Sakusa beside him and Bokuto next to Hinata. Their friends were facing them, all with happy and pleased expressions. Atsumu didn’t mind attention, but this felt different from the sort he received on the court. It was more intimate and wholesome, with their closest friends celebrating them getting their first home.

“Thank you for coming today,” Hinata continued, smiling widely to them all. “We wanted to share our home with you and welcome you to celebrate moving here with us. It was a big decision to make, but we figured if we spend ninety percent of our time together at training, and still don’t get tired of each other during our time off, then living together should be just as easy.”

Atsumu didn’t care at that point if everyone was watching, he took Hinata’s sweaty hand in his and gave him a reassuring squeeze.

Hinata took a breath and continued. “We want our home to be a safe and loving place we can all return to. No matter how far we have to travel with our team, we’ll always have somewhere to call our own. We want to share it with all of you, too. So you’re always welcome. Except maybe not the middle of the night, because it’s difficult to wake Koutarou up as it is.”

That earnt a few laughs, some “we know’s” and looks of understanding.

Bokuto just shrugged, accepting the truth for what it was.

“With that being said, we’ve got lots of yummy food to share with you, so please help yourselves.”

“And you’re all welcome to join in with our game of volleyball later,” Bokuto added, receiving some cheers.

While everyone bustled inside to get some food, Atsumu pulled his boyfriends aside.

“Hey,” he said to them, his heart suddenly picking up its pace.

“You okay?” Sakusa asked in concern.

Atsumu smiled widely. “More than okay. Just wanted to… y’know,” he shrugged and ran his hands through his hair. “I just love you guys so much. And I’m really happy we have a home for ourselves.”

“Tsumu,” blubbered Hinata, tears already trickling down his cheeks as he dove in for a hug.

Bokuto and Sakusa joined and Atsumu had to breathe deeply to stop his own eyes from welling up.

“Our forever is getting better, huh,” Bokuto said cheerily as he kissed each of their cheeks.

“Thank you for setting us that challenge Atsumu,” Sakusa said softly, teasing as much as he was serious.

“Yeah,” nodded Hinata. “I’m glad you guys were super obvious with your flirting. And that I couldn’t choose because I love you all so much.”

“We all won, right?” Bokuto smiled as his eyes glistened.

“Yeah,” nodded Atsumu, swallowing down the lump in his throat and blinking to give way for the tears. “We all won each other’s hearts.”

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not gonna lie, I got emotional when writing that ending - it hit me with final manga chapter feels all over again.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed reading! This was super, super fun to write and their characters as a whole are so great together (as friends and teammates just as much).  
> When I first posted I had no idea this was the only fic for this ship - I had deliberately waited until after posting to search for others as I wanted to have my own take on their dynamic, but alas, there were none ;_;  
> I do hope more fics come as I love this ship a lot! 
> 
> On an extra note, for those who read (and are old enough) explicit fics, I have a side chapter planned that continues from video calling with Hinata... which will be added to the series I put this fic in and rated/tagged accordingly. So if you're interested in that, click next in the series as it will up right after this 👀
> 
> Thank you for reading!  
> ~ comments and kudos are welcome  
> [twitter: NightBronze](https://twitter.com/NightBronze)


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